WASHINGTON — Ken Connelly was a junior lieutenant in the British Army when he landed in France just after the D-Day invasions 60 years ago June 6. And faith, he said, was a steady companion.
“I had the usual experience of praying every time a shell went off near me,” he said with a chuckle from his home in London.
He didn't see much of chaplains, he recalled, as “they were with the wounded and the dying.” But when a land mine ripped his leg off in the Netherlands—“about average for a junior lieutenant,” he said—he joined the ranks of those ministered to by the priests.
The chaplain asked Connelly if he was going to die, and when Connelly responded that no one had informed him of such a possibility, the chaplain asked if he might minister to the men in order of their closeness to death rather than according to rank.
“I rather liked his care of doing us in order of dying,” Connelly said. “He was a good Irishman.”
Connelly was an ordinary person living in an extraordinary time. But his Catholic faith—and chaplains—served him well. His story is similar in certain ways to those of the Americans of his generation, as documented in a new museum exhibit.
The faith of Allied troops and those on the home front during World War II is being commemorated at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C., as part of a citywide effort by museums to highlight various aspects of the war. The exhibits coincide with the dedication of the World War II Memorial on Memorial Day (May 31) and the 60th anniversary of the Normandy invasion June 6. “Faith of Our Fathers and Mothers: The Role of Faith in the Greatest Generation” runs until Sept. 7.
Connelly thinks Catholics should know about the heritage of their parents and grandparents.
War Relics
The experience of WWII was especially faith-based for Americans, according to Dan Callahan, director of exhibits and publications at the cultural center.
What was unique about the war years for Americans, according to Callahan, was that “faith and patriotism were seen as the same.”
“The war was seen as almost a crusade — defending the faith as much as the country,” Callahan said.
While the chaplain experience and the faith of the men on the front lines might have been the same in many armies, the home front in the United States increasingly turned to overt signs of the faith — often the Catholic faith — as seen in war-bond posters using an image of St. Joan of Arc and in movies of the period such as Song of Bernadette.
“A fascinating aspect of this exhibition and the accompanying programs show the rise of religious images in times of war and the influence of Hollywood on religious images in the 1940s,” said Penelope Fletcher, deputy director of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, in a statement. “That seems to have particular relevance now.”
That relevance is displayed in a variety of ways, according to Callahan.
“We have on display Bibles from the Government Printing Office with a dedication by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a war-bonds poster with Joan of Arc in it, triptychs used by Catholic chaplains, a picture of Padre Pio reading a letter with American troops and a zucchetto of Pope Pius XII,” he said.
There are also dozens of photographs of priests saying Mass in the jungle, countless religiously themed posters, cards and records, and even Protestant and Jewish items, underscoring the centrality of faith during that period, Callahan said.
The exhibit will also focus on the life of Msgr. Walter Carroll, who worked for the Vatican Secretariat of State and acted as a conduit for secret communiqué s between Pope Pius XII and President Franklin Roosevelt during the war. The exhibit will be one of the first exposé s of his work.
There also will be screenings of films that were made during the faith-filled era of the war years, including Going My Way, The Bells of St. Mary's and The Song of Bernadette, and a symposium on chaplains June 26.
Unique Period
Timothy Matovina, a professor of theology and director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, agreed with Callahan's assessment that faith and patriotism were closely linked during the war.
“Most Catholics would not have asked if it was right to be patriotic and Catholic; they would have been seen as the same thing,” he said. “Cardinal (Francis) Spellman was a friend of Roosevelt, and Catholics were great supporters” of Roosevelt. And, he added, the Catholic diocesan structure was more conducive to mobilizing support than was the structure of many religious denominations.
Matovina said Catholics were a uniquely patriotic denomination for a variety of reasons. They were working class and disproportionately represented in the military and in the awarding of medals as a result.
“Catholics were very caught up in trying to prove their commitments” to the nation, especially given the history of anti-Catholic sentiment in the United States, Matovina explained that trend began back in World War I with the National Catholic War Council, a group Matovina called a “precursor to the bishops' conference.”
Rather than react against the anti-Catholic bigotry shown during Alfred E. Smith's presidential candidacy, Catholics renewed their patriotic efforts, he said. Groups such as the Knights of Columbus were “huge in this effort,” he said.
Those in the Catholic community who questioned the war, such as Father Charles Coughlin and the Catholic Worker movement, or those who were seen as unpatriotic, were marginalized, Matovina said.
Eldon Ernst, a Church historian at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif., said the 1940s have received “very little solid historical research and analysis by American religious historians.”
But the decade witnessed much religious ferment, he said, including a “bursting of new institutional growth” in the Catholic Church. Jesuit Father John Courtney Murray and Catholic Worker founder Dorothy Day were “powerful public voices … in emerging social issues,” Ernst said.
“There were new questions of American religious identity permeating all denominations,” he said. “The idea of American religious pluralism begins to take shape. … This would increase as new immigration to the United States takes place with post-war relocations and finally the relaxing of old restrictive immigration laws to peoples of countries outside Western Christendom.”
And overt religious symbolism in the 1940s seemed to be a uniquely American phenomenon. Ken Connelly recalled that the British government did not issue prayer books and Bibles as the American government did, but he added that his experience with the British chaplains closely mirrored the stories of their American counterparts.
The World War II experience is “part of every Catholic's background,” Connelly said, “and people today ought to have some idea of what happened.”
Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: When Life Ends DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:Editor's note: The Vatican has said on several occasions that brain death is a legitimate standard for determining death, and that organs can be taken from a brain-dead patient. But what the Vatican means by brain death and what many U.S. hospitals mean are often two different things — there is no national legal standard for what entails brain death.
ROME—Much of the focus of a recent Vatican gathering of physicians was on patients in a “persistent vegetative state” and on Pope John Paul II's insistence that such patients continue to receive the basic necessities of life—hydration and nutrition.
But part of the conference also touched on another controversy. A leading Vatican theologian affirmed that “brain death” is a valid criterion to determine death.
Doctors often declare brain death in order to remove vital organs from an organ donor. But even though the Pope indicated four years ago that the brain-death criterion is acceptable, some Catholic thinkers have resisted it.
Last year, two new Harvard Medical School physicians questioned the validity of brain death. Drs. Robert Truog and Walter Robinson, the authors of a 2003 article in the medical journal Critical Care Medicine, belong to a persistent minority of doctors and philosophers who ask: If a brain-dead person is more like a living person than a dead one—heart beating, warm to the touch, having functioning vital organs and even able to gestate a pregnancy—how can such a person be truly dead?
In an address to the International Congress on Transplants in 2000, John Paul encouraged organ transplants that are performed “in an ethically acceptable manner.”
He reiterated Church teaching that vital organs that occur singly in the body can be removed only “from the body of someone who is certainly dead.”
“The criterion adopted in more recent times for ascertaining the fact of death, namely the complete and irreversible cessation of all brain activity, if rigorously applied, does not seem to conflict with the essential elements of a sound anthropology,” the Pope said.
Long History
The Vatican first looked at the Church's role in death determination in 1957. Pope Pius XII stated in “The Prolongation of Life” that the determination of death “does not fall within the competence of the Church” but is left to physicians.
Dr. Paul Byrne, a neonatologist practicing in Ohio and a past president of the Catholic Medical Association, has argued against using the brain-death criterion for years.
He became involved in 1975 after caring for an infant who for two days had a flat brain wave, an indicator of cerebral death. Byrne declined advice to turn off the ventilator and chose to treat the child. His former patient now works as a paramedic.
Byrne believes current practices do not meet the Pope's requirement. “For an organ to be suitable for a transplant, it must be a healthy organ, and the only way you can get a healthy heart is to get it from a living person,” he said. “Brain death doesn't mean you're going to die right away. It becomes the signal to cut out the vital organs.”
But several high-level conferences have taken place at the Vatican recently which have defined just what the Vatican means by brain death.
In 1985, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences concluded that death has occurred when “there has been an irreversible cessation of all brain functions, even if cardiac and respiratory functions that would have ceased have been maintained artificially.”
Brain function “includes every kind of activity by the part of the whole encephalic mass,” said Legion of Christ Father Gonzalo Miranda, dean of the school of bioethics at Rome's Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University. “That means that if there is, for example, blood circulation in the brain, you cannot say the organism is dead.”
Byrne said he doesn't dispute John Paul's teaching but pointed out that the Pope used the language of “complete and irreversible cessation of all brain activity.”
“The only way to have complete and irreversible [cessation of] brain activity is if there is cessation of circulation,” Byrne argued.
But Conventual Franciscan Father Germain Kopaczynski, director of education for the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Boston, said if the Pope had meant to say that cessation of circulation was required for a death determination, he would have said so.
“It seems to me the Holy Father is saying either/or — either total brain death or cardiopulmonary death, and he's very clear on that. This Holy Father certainly could have said … both brain death and heart death — and yet he did say either/or,” Father Kopaczynski said. “He's certainly not unaware of all the ramifications that are there.”
Myriad of Tests
John Haas, director of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, said the assessment of brain death is more sophisticated and in some ways more certain than the traditional heart-death determination.
“The cardiopulmonary criteria are pointing to the fact that eventually you're going to have disintegration of the brain,” he said. “We didn't have a way to measure that in the past. [Now] if it can be determined that the brain stem, cerebral cortex and cerebellum have died and ceased functioning, then the person can be declared dead.”
Part of the confusion is that some organizations use the term “brain death” when they are not referring to the brain stem, cerebral cortex and cerebellum stopping, but only to a flat brain wave.
Regina Apostolorum University's Father Miranda said almost every country has protocols for hospitals to follow before any vital organs are removed from a person. In Italy, the protocols include the absence of consciousness, spontaneous respiration, pupillary reaction and other cranial nerve reflexes (to check mid-brain activity).
“The presence of any of this would imply that the patient is not dead,” Father Miranda said. “This absence ought to be for six hours for an adult, 12 for a child and 24 for an infant, before organs are removed.”
In the United States, the “gold standard” of brain-death protocols is found in a New England Journal of Medicine article by Eelco Wijdicks of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said Edward Furton of the National Catholic Bioethics Center. Furton said some hospitals might follow the criteria laid out by Wijdicks while others might be more lax or stricter.
There is no national legal standard for brain-death protocols. The 1980 Uniform Determination of Death Act, written by a presidential commission, says a determination of death must be made “in accordance with accepted medical standards” but is silent on what diagnostic tests are acceptable.
According to the Wijdicks protocol, only after the patient's CT scan shows conditions such as heavy bleeding inside the head may the physician conduct a neurological examination to determine brain death. Conditions that might lead one to mistake brain death must also be ruled out, Wijdicks cautioned in his 2000 article. In the case of hypothermia, for example, “the diagnosis of brain death cannot be reliably made until the core temperature has reached 32 degrees,” he wrote.
Testing to see if a patient is brain dead must be precise and document absolutes, Wijdicks wrote. One component of the test examines whether the patient is in a coma: There should be no evidence of responsiveness. There should be no eye opening or motor response to voice or pain, for example, from compressing the jaw, he wrote.
Also, the test checks absence of brain-stem reflexes, making sure there is no spontaneous breathing, response to a bright light or grimacing due to pain, for example.
There could be further tests to confirm the determination of death, though the law in the United States does not mandate these confirmatory tests. The tests might include electroencephalography and ultrasound of the brain.
The neurological criterion is the Vatican's standard for brain death.
The U.S. bishops' ethical directives for Catholic hospitals address brain death in general terms, stating in Directive 62 that the “determination of death should be made by the physician or competent medical authority in accordance with responsible and commonly accepted scientific criteria.” Catholic hospitals are advised in Directive 64 that organs for donation “should not be removed until it has been medically determined that the patient has died.”
The Vatican's latest endorsement of the brain-death criterion came at the international physicians congress held in Rome from March 17-20. There, Bishop Elio Sgreccia of the Pontifical Academy for Life stated: “Personally, I am convinced that despite the criticisms levelled against the neurological criterion for the ascertaining of death, if observed scrupulously it merits our trust.”
Ellen Rossini writes from Richardson, Texas.
----- EXCERPT: The Vatican, Brain Death and the Organ Donor ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Rossini ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Catechism Compliance Kills Textbooks DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:WINONA, Minn.—A major Catholic book-publishing company has decided to put some religion textbooks on hold after a bishops committee said they might lead students to think Church doctrine is merely a set of opinions.
Father Ronald Vierling of Lans-dale (Pa.) Catholic High School is glad the bishops stepped in.
During the previous year, he used one of the targeted textbooks in class. “As far as content, there wasn't that much in terms of theology,” Father Vierling said. Teachers would “heavily supplement what was in the textbook because, if you didn't, students would lose a major portion of their formation in the basis of the faith.”
St. Mary's Press said in a recent letter to diocesan and high-school educators that the decision to suspend development of certain of its high-school religion textbooks was based on “negative judgments” made by the bishops' Ad Hoc Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism on several of its textbooks.
John Vitek, president of St. Mary's Press, said seven books are in suspended development.
“There are some significant concerns that we have,” he said in an interview with the Register, “and we're working with the committee to try to come to an understanding about how to create textbooks that are both faithful to our Lasallian heritage and also address their legitimate concerns.”
St. Mary's Press is an apostolate of the De La Salle Christian Brothers. St. John Baptist de La Salle is the patron saint of teachers.
Vitek explained that the committee reviews textbooks voluntarily sent in by publishing companies and, based on comprehensive protocols and standards, makes a judgment on whether the materials conform to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Last December, Archbishop Alfred Hughes of New Orleans said only one-third of the textbooks reviewed by the committee since June 2001 were declared to be in conformity.
A list of textbooks okayed by the committee can be found at: www. usccb.org/catechism/document/ Springlist.pdf. Archbishop Hughes urged that, whenever possible, dioceses use only those catechetical texts that appear on the list.
St. Mary's Press has three high-school titles that appear on the list: Living Justice and Peace, The Catholic Faith Handbook for Youth and Written on Our Hearts. Vitek also pointed out that all of the company's high-school textbooks have official Church acceptance through the nihil obstat and imprimatur. Because of the imprimatur, the company's nine existing high-school textbooks will remain available for purchase, he said.
However, Bishop Bernard Harrington of Winona, Minn., now requires books be put on the conformity list before St. Mary's Press may receive the imprimatur in the future, Vitek said.
Different Approaches
Citing the confidential process involved in working with publishing companies, Msgr. Daniel Kutys, the executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office for the Catechism, said he couldn't comment on the reasons St. Mary's suspended its new and revised textbooks, although he added that the company itself was free to do so if it chose.
Vitek said he decided to send the May 4 letter to about 1,500 clients because some were inquiring as to when new and revised books were coming out.
In the letter, he said publications of St. Mary's Press, following Lasallian principles, are meant to “inspire not indoctrinate, include not separate and affirm not condemn.”
He also listed points where the company differed from the committee, including:
• St. Mary's textbooks use phrases such as “the Church teaches” or “the Church believes,” but the company has been told that this language makes truth sound like opinion.
• The company believes “firmly” that presenting the Gospel to youths without changing the meaning and importance of doctrine should be done in a language they can access. But conformity reviews have asked that they give the straight Gospel. The bishops objected to “certain attempts at enculturating or rephrasing traditional formulae and technical language of faith,” according to Vitek.
• The company says it writes textbooks that reach out to those who believe, those who are searching or doubting, and those who don't believe. But conformity reviews want textbooks to affirm the believing Catholic, not encourage the doubting Thomas. Vitek said the bishops “seem to suggest” that the books should presume belief among the students and that the classroom is where “faith speaks to faith.”
• The company says it is “committed” to catechesis that encourages students to ponder their experiences — especially in light of the Gospel — and to view God at work in their lives. But conformity reviews warn against substituting Church wisdom with student reflection. “We have also been directed to remove references to typical teen-age experiences out of a concern that such references could imply that experiences of this nature are condoned by the Church,” Vitek said. He said those experiences fall under the categories of friendship, dating and questions of belief.
• The bishops' reviews also asked the company not to teach Scriptural skepticism by introducing students to the controversial “historical-critical methodology and exegesis” and to stop including references to the doubts of biblical scholars, anthropologists and archaeologists in their books on the Scriptures.
Vitek wrote that St. Mary's Press hopes for a “rapprochement” with the committee on these points.
High School teacher Father Vier-ling said the textbooks need “exactly what the bishops are asking for.” He was also concerned about the use of such phrases as “the Church believes” in the textbook. “You are putting defined Catholic truths on the level of opinion,” he said. “In other words, it's one opinion in a sea of opinions.”
He added that he is seriously considering using a St. Mary's Press book, Written on Our Hearts, during the next academic year because it's “a good introduction text to the Old Testament.” He pointed out that this book is on the committee's conformity list.
“It's in (St. Mary's Press') interests to go in the direction of the bishops because when they did, they have a textbook that did meet the guidelines of the committee,” he said. “It met our needs, too. So that should say something to them.”
Carlos Briceño writes from Seminole, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Carlos Briceņo ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Judge Okays Suicide Pills For Oregon DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—A federal move that would have effectively overturned Oregon's assisted-suicide law was rejected in a 2-1 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling May 27.
The case, Oregon v. Ashcroft, challenged U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's 2001 interpretation of the federal Controlled Substances Act. Ashcroft had issued a directive prohibiting medical doctors from prescribing suicide doses of federally regulated drugs.
“The 9th Circuit has just told these patients that their lives are expendable,” said Cathy Cleaver Ruse, director of planning and information for the U.S. bishops' Pro-Life Secretariat, of the ruling. She added, however, that the ruling was not at all unexpected.
Ashcroft's directive undid a Bill Clinton-administration ruling that allowed doctors to prescribe federally controlled substances to patients who wanted to die. Ashcroft argued that assisted suicide is not a “legitimate medical purpose for prescribing, dispensing or administering federally controlled substances.”
Voted on in two referenda by Oregonians, the state's Death With Dignity Act -the first and only of its kind in effect in the United States—went into effect in 1997. The law allows doctors to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to patients who are of sound mind and are terminally ill. Since 1997, 171 people have used the law to end their lives before their diseases killed them, according to the state's health department.
Oregon v. Ashcroft “is not, in my judgment, a case where a court has appropriately protected the ability of the people of a state to experiment with heightened protections for individual rights,” said Richard Garnett, a professor at the University of Notre Dame law school.
“Properly understood,” he continued, “this is not really a case where the people of Oregon have elected to provide Oregonians with ‘more’ rights, rights not guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. Instead, the terminally ill in Oregon have been deprived by the so-called Death With Dignity Act of the equal protection of that state's homicide laws, and it is unfortunate that a sound principle of political theory — that is, federalism — is being used to insulate that deprivation from judicial review.”
Supporters of Ashcroft's interpretations of the federal drug law are not pessimistic, however.
“We fully expect this issue to go to the Supreme Court and for the attorney general to be vindicated,” said Dr. David Stevens, executive director of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations. “He is fighting for the correct interpretation of the law.”
Though expected to appeal to the Supreme Court, the Justice Department at press time had not made public its next move regarding the case.
Law ‘Here to Stay’?
Proponents of assisted suicide, not surprisingly, see the ruling as much more of a potential long-term victory than their opponents do.
Scott Blaine Swenson, executive director of the Death With Dignity National Center and Oregon Death With Dignity Political Action Fund, would like his opponents in the assisted-suicide debate to surrender in the wake of the ruling.
“I am appealing to opponents to recognize that Oregon's law is here to stay, to stop fighting these laws legally and politically, as those fights are a waste of resources on both sides, since both sides are ultimately concerned about improving end-of-life care,” he said.
But Stevens suggested killing patients couldn't be termed “endof-life care.” At the same time, in the 2001 directive, Ashcroft actually encouraged doctors to prescribe controlled substances for pain management when necessary.
“What we need is not more power for doctors who use drugs to kill their patients but more power for doctors who use drugs to heal and comfort their patients,” Stevens said in a public statement after the ruling. “The whole reason the federal government regulates controlled substances is to prevent their use for harmful purposes. I can't think of any greater harm than to use the drugs to kill.”
Judge Richard Tallman wrote in the court's opinion that Ashcroft's move “far exceeds the scope of his authority under federal law.” Ashcroft's “unilateral attempt to regulate general medical practices historically entrusted to state law-makers interferes with the democratic debate about physician-assisted suicide,” he wrote, and is “unlawful and unenforceable.”
But according to Ruse, who is also a lawyer, Ashcroft was doing his job.
“This is not about an attempt by the attorney general to control Oregon law … it's about whether Oregon should be able to ignore federal law and at the same time co-opt the federal government into facilitating assisted suicides by providing federal prescribing licenses and federally controlled drugs.”
“The Ashcroft directive restores the uniform enforcement of the long-standing federal Controlled Substances Act,” Ruse added, “and also clarifies that aggressive pain management is legitimate medical care even where it unintentionally increases the likelihood of a patient's death.”
Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor of National Review Online.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Ben of 'Arcadia' - Telling Hollywood About God DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:Ben Eicher likes to joke that he's like God in the CBS hit show “Joan of Arcadia.”
He says he hovers invisibly around the periphery of the award-winning television production, making suggestions. That's in his role as theology consultant to “Arcadia.” Educated as an attorney, he also teaches religion at St. Thomas More High School in Rapid City, S.D., and serves on the board of directors for the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology, publisher of the quarterly journal Pro Ecclesia.
He recently spoke with Register staff writer Tim Drake.
Tell me about your background. Where are you from originally?
I was born on June 11, 1959, at Lutheran Hospital in St. Louis and received holy baptism at St. James Lutheran Church in Burlington, Ohio, on July 5.
My father, Rev. Robert Eicher, is now deceased. He died of a heart attack on Reformation Sunday, Oct. 31, 1995, in Edon, Ohio, where he was pastor of St. Peter's Lutheran Church. My mother, Janice, passed away this past Jan. 18 from lung cancer.
My father's family historically had been Mennonite. My mother's family on the paternal side were Irish Catholics who were late-1800s immigrants to the United States.
After serving a stint in the Air Force during the Korean War, my father attended Concordia College in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and then transferred to Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. There he received his bachelor of arts degree and in 1960 his master of divinity degree.
His classmates in the class of 1960 included two men who 10 or 15 years ago became noted converts to Catholicism — Father Richard John Neuhaus and Robert Louis Wilken.
Do you have a favorite childhood memory?
My father expressed to us that Christian unity under one ecclesial home was not only a goal but also a requirement and one we should attempt to achieve in our lifetimes.
An outward sign of this came on Oct. 22, 1967, in Wayne, New Jersey, at Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church when my father participated with other Lutheran and Catholic clergy in an ecumenical service. He told me—an 8-year-old boy—that day, “Someday we'll all be Catholics.”
Was there a time when you fell away from the practice of your faith?
Following my graduation from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1985, I moved to Rapid City, South Dakota At first I “church shopped” among Lutheran parishes. At the congregations I attended, holy communion was never offered more than monthly and a vestmentless, nonsacramental generic Christianity seemed to be the norm.
I eventually drifted away from church attendance altogether. As one might suspect, my drift from church attendance began to manifest itself in a spiritual malaise.
What led you to the Catholic Church?
Late in a relationship dating a Catholic woman named Marina, probably as a result of the strain of it beginning to break apart, I started to feel the tug of faith reaching toward me. Marina and I talked about attending church regularly on Sundays. The question then quickly became, “Which church?” I suggested we alternate one week at a Lutheran church and the next at a Catholic church.
I think I only made it through two Lutheran services before I was ready to bail out on the brand of Lutheranism I was seeing practiced. On the other hand, my experience at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was profound. As much as I do not hold to a kind of “experiential” view of Christian practice, I could literally feel myself spiritually filled while in the Catholic church. The liturgy was completely familiar. The “high church” practice there was akin to what I'd grown up with. Also, it felt wonderful to be in a church where not only was there weekly holy Communion but also daily if one desired it.
And no one complained or made the regularity of its celebration a source of contention, as my dad had experienced when he instituted weekly communion in his parishes. I had the overriding feeling I was “home.”
Although the relationship between Marina and me ended, I decided I would be a Catholic attendee but not a Catholic. Marina's brother, Paul, noticed me attending Mass regularly and reached out to me.
He invited me to a Sunday-night Bible study led by the then local Catholic high school religious-education director, Timothy Gray [now a Scripture professor at St. John Vianney Seminary in the Archdiocese of Denver].
Tim was young, energetic, vibrant and more biblically knowledgeable than anyone I'd met other than my own father. I was trans-fixed and inspired. His study on Matthew 16 made me realize my journey “home to Rome” had truly begun.
Shortly thereafter, I began to attend RCIA classes at the cathedral, with Paul as my sponsor. In June 1994 I received the sacrament of confirmation from then Rapid City, South Dakota, Bishop Charles Chaput.
How did you come to work on “Joan of Arcadia”?
Since 1987 I have been a contributing editor for the national music and politics newsletter Rock and Rap Confidential. It was founded by former Rolling Stone magazine associate editor Dave Marsh.
Through my friendship with Dave, I had heard a lot about television writer Barbara Hall. Her television ré sumé included stints with “Moonlighting,” “Chicago Hope” and “Judging Amy.” In June 1993 I met Barbara, and we immediately forged a very close friendship. I began to correspond frequently with her about Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. Eventually, Barbara became Catholic.
In summer 2003 I visited Barbara in Los Angeles, where she was starting a new series, “Joan of Arcadia.” The idea of God making visits to a teen-aged girl and giving her tasks was superb yet possibly highly controversial. The network had bought the show, but the episodes had not yet been shot at that point.
While I was in Los Angeles, Barbara introduced me to the writing staff and began to share with me discussions about how perhaps God could, would and should interact with people. The series debuted last September and instantly was a hit.
As the first several months went along, Barbara asked me if I would consider taking on the role of the show's official theology consultant. Thanks to the glory of e-mail, the position would not require my moving to Los Angeles.
What does your role involve?
As to my actual involvement in what happens with the episodes, when Amber Tamblyn — the actress who plays the lead character, Joan — asked me the question, “So, what exactly do you do as the theology consultant?” I joked in reply: “Like God, I hover invisibly around the periphery, making suggestions.”
She chuckled, but in essence that really is pretty accurate. Essentially, I'm asked by the writers to supply ideas about biblical angles to situations or issues, or to give general religious information.
Do you use the television show with your students?
I use the episodes regularly in my high-school classes. My 11thand 12th-grade students absolutely love the show. They think it very accurately portrays their lives and concerns. They say the show characterizes very well their spiritual questions about how one does actually interact with God, through prayer, mainly. They appreciate how it shows that God uses even the smallest and least obvious of his children for the good of others.
To me, a crux of the show is its utter Catholicity. What I mean is that its message is always one of community, not individuality at the cost of others, and of having a common stake in the well-being of all. Achieving the fullness of our own individual nature for the common good is a tenet of the show.
I'm happy God is not portrayed as the Grand Game-Show Host who dispenses happy-face prizes, nor is he the stern judge intent on doing more damning than saving. Instead, God is love, but yet he's not a wimp; he's conversational in a two-way manner yet completely in charge.
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Providing Theology, News and Comfort to New York Immigrants DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — Ada Ricci is a widow whose poor health confines her to her New York home.
But when asked about Radio Maria, the Italian native and retired professor who has lived in the United States for most of her life takes on the air of a younger and more vibrant woman.
“It helps me tremendously,” Ricci said, brimming with enthusiasm. “Radio Maria gives me so much. It is a blessing from God.”
In a city that is often thought of as stressful and impersonal, Radio Maria has been a comfort and an inspiration to many Catholics in the New York area, particularly immigrants. Most of the programming is in Italian and Spanish.
Florinda Iannace, an Italian professor at New York's Fordham University, began doing a weekly radio program for the faithful on local stations in 1982. Ten years later, a priest who was working with Italian immigrants in New York, Scalabrini Father Walter Tonelotto, asked her what she thought about bringing Radio Maria to New York. It had started in Italy in 1983.
Iannace said Yes, and Father Tonelotto proceeded to borrow money and rent a station in downtown Manhattan.
All programs were produced locally at first, until the New York station merged with Italy's Radio Maria in 1994.
Then, about four years ago, Father Herman Acosta, who had started a Spanish version of Radio Maria in Colombia in 1997, brought it to New York. It shares space with New York's Italian Radio Maria, now housed in the New York borough of Queens.
They are part of a loose-knit, growing family of Radio Maria stations whose numbers are approaching 50 worldwide. Like the original in Italy, they share a mission and Marian charism. In North America, there are Radio Maria stations in Houston; Alexandria, La.; Toronto; and Guadalajara, Mexico.
The New York entities are on different channels and operate on a sub-carrier rather than AM or FM, which is too expensive. That means listeners need to purchase a special $30 radio unit through the station.
The New York Italian station originally broadcast only local programs but eventually joined forces with Radio Maria in Italy. Today, 90% of the programming comes from Italy.
The station regularly airs interviews with the best and brightest minds in Rome and airs Pope John Paul II's blessings, audiences and homilies.
“Radio Maria broadcasts the best catechism possible from the best theologians,” said Iannace, who serves as president of the station. She cited Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household.
The station also broadcasts daily Mass and an hour of spirituality with the rosary and programs containing advice from doctors and psychologists. Other programs focus on literature with spiritual themes or live interviews with local Italians about their faith.
Operation costs run some $20,000 a month, and Radio Maria has depended on donations, an annual fund-raising dinner and Radio Maria Italy. Two years ago, the station decided to launch a “Mariathona” — an idea borrowed from New York's Spanish-language Radio Maria channel. The Mariathona consisted of local programming for three days. Within the first three hours, $30,000 had been pledged. In three days, the station raised $120,000.
“When I told my nephew how we had done, he said we would only see about 40% of that money,” Iannace said. “But the following week, we had $100,000 in the bank.”
After this, Italy's Radio Maria thought the station was ready to stand on its own.
In the beginning, Radio Maria gave out hundreds of free radios in order to publicize itself. Fans learn about the channel through word of mouth.
“We have 6,000 people who donate money regularly to us. We believe we have 50,000 families who listen to us,” Iannace said. People can also listen to the station via the Internet and dish networks.
For the Italian-American community in New York, the Church has been able to come into homes in a personal way.
“When I listen to these programs, I feel like I'm in Italy,” said Concetta Ursida, coordinator for Radio Maria. “The message these people have is so clear, so impeccable, so strong, so vivid.”
New Immigrants
But the long-established Italian community in New York is not likely to grow with any significant immigration from Italy, which has one of the lowest birth rates in the world.
Immigrant and second-generation Hispanics in New York, however, provide a major audience for Spanish-language Radio Maria. About 25% of the channel's programming is local, with the rest coming from Latin America, notably Colombia. To date, there are Radio Maria stations in 20 Latin American countries.
The unity of language, culture and faith is apparent every Saturday when the Radio Maria stations in Latin America link up for the rosary. Each mystery is said by station personnel in different countries.
Programs from Colombia include Latin American news, daily Mass, the Angelus, Liturgy of the Hours, rosary with the Pope, the Divine Mercy chaplet and theology classes. Every Friday there is a round-table discussion with the Latin America stations on pastoral problems in their countries.
Local programming in New York includes Bible classes, programs for alcoholics and families, instructions on prayer and a program on the problems of immigrants in the New York area.
Listeners have called in to tell the station they had lived with depression for years until they began to listen to Radio Maria. “The station taught them to pray and they have become happy. It has changed their lives,” said Father Patricio Gallego, spiritual director for New York City's Amigos de Radio Maria.
“Radio Maria is a gift from Mary,” he said. “We are convinced of this.”
English Programming
Radio Maria has long been interested in doing English programs. The station's ideal would be to purchase another station that would transmit on normal frequencies — such that anyone could listen.
“However, the cost of purchasing a station in New York is prohibitive,” said Father Peter Pilsner, an archdiocesan priest who helps the station. “We are talking upwards of $40 million.” Another plan is to rent time on local stations for a few hours a week.
“In New York, there is a great thirst for spirituality,” said Scalabrini Father Joseph Fugolo, director of Radio Maria New York. “We want to meet the needs of the whole person in English. We can start in a limited way and see if we can raise the necessary funds.”
“I hope the English programming will take off,” Ursida said. “My generation is the last that really speaks Italian. But the next generation will need this more than we do.”
Sabrina Ferrisi writes from Jersey City, New Jersey.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sabrina Ferrisi ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:Starboard Network Goes High Power in Twin Cities
Starting May 25, the network moved to 1330 on the AM dial in the Twin Cities, making it the biggest station yet in the network's growing national presence, with broadcasts in other cities such as Chicago, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh, the Star Tribune reported.
The station features programs such as Jeff Cavins' “Morning Air,” Al Kresta's “Kresta in the Afternoon,” “Super Saints,” “Holy Rosary” and “The Best of Mother Angelica Live.”
Before the switch, the station had been broadcasting on two low-power, daytime-only stations, the paper reported.
“The strong signal is the big thing we were looking for” when Starboard bought WMNN (1330 AM) in January for $3.25 million, programming director Sherry Brownrigg said. “[The change] makes this one of the best Catholic radio signals in America covering the most people.”
Poll: Catholic Voters Shun Abortion Supporters
LIFENEWS.COM, May 24 — A recent Zogby International poll has shown that Catholics are less likely to support Catholic candidates — such as presumptive presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. — who support abortion and embryonic stem-cell research.
The poll of 1,388 Catholics in the United States showed Kerry getting only 20% of Catholic voters' support on issues where he disagrees with Church teachings, LifeNews.com reported. If a candidate said he would only appoint supporters of Roe v. Wade to judicial positions, 65% of Catholics would not support him, the poll found. Only 16% said they would be more likely to support such a candidate. Both churchgoing Catholics (71%) and Catholics who attend church infrequently (57%) held those opinions.
Also, the pro-life news site reported, 53% of Catholic voters would be less likely to support a candidate who advocates embryonic stem-cell research. Only 23% said they would be more likely to support such a candidate.
No Communion for Protesters, Cardinal George Says
The wearing of the sash protest, sponsored by the Rainbow Sash movement, was to show the “symbol of the gifts that we bring to the Church as gay and lesbian people,” according to one organizer.
However, Cardinal George noted, wearing the sash indicates disagreement with Church teaching that homosexual relations are sinful, the Sun-Times reported.
“The Rainbow Sash movement wants its members to be fully accepted in the Church not on the same conditions as any Catholic but precisely as gay,” the cardinal wrote. “With this comes the requirement that the Church change her moral teaching, which is from the Lord and his Apostles.”
The cardinal noted that the policy of the U.S. bishops is to not give Communion to anyone who comes to church wearing the sash.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Partial-Birth Abortion Trials Spur Fetal-Pain Legislation DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Legislation has been introduced in Congress requiring abortionists to make a woman aware of the fact that her unborn child is capable of feeling pain.
The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act would apply to abortions on children at or beyond 20 weeks' gestation. The woman would have to be informed verbally and with a brochure provided by the Department of Health and Human Services. If the woman still chooses to have the abortion, she would be given the option of anesthesia for her child.
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, said women should not be kept in the dark about fetal pain.
“Women have the right to know what their unborn child experiences during an abortion procedure,” he said.
Brownback, a Catholic, said the bill's genesis came after testimony this year during court challenges in California, Nebraska and New York to the federal partial-birth abortion ban.
An expert witness at one of the hearings, Dr. Sunny Anand, director of the Pain Neurobiology Laboratory at Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute, testified April 15 that “the human fetus possess the ability to experience pain from 20 weeks of gestation, if not earlier, and the pain perceived by the fetus is possibly more intense than that perceived by term newborns or older children.”
Brownback was struck by the testimony of both physicians and anesthesiologists regarding the level of pain children feel. He said many abortionists indicated they had not thought about the possibility babies could feel pain or were not really concerned about it.
“Unborn children do not have a voice, but they are young members of the human family,” the senator said. “It is time to look at the unborn child and recognize that it really is a young human who can feel pain and certainly should be treated with some care.”
‘They Suffer Immensely’
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., coauthored the legislation, known as HR 4420 in the House. Like Brown-back, he also cited the importance of the testimony presented at the partial-birth abortion ban hearings.
“For a long time there was a sense of indifference and ignorance when it came to suffering endured by unborn children, especially as it related to surgery, and almost total indifference on the part of the abortion side when it came to the lethality of abortion,” said Smith, also a Catholic. “But now, the evidence is overwhelming and it's un-rebutted … and the time has come to say that these children suffer, and they suffer immensely. Women have a right to know that is happening.”
Many organizations support a woman's right to be fully informed before making a choice regarding her baby.
“The legislation does nothing to infringe on so-called abortion rights,” said Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. “It would simply require abortion providers to tell women seeking an abortion about the medical evidence on pain experienced by unborn children during abortion.” He believes the proposed Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act “falls in the ‘right to know’ category.”
National Right to Life legislative director Douglas Johnson said the whole issue of pain caused to the unborn child by abortion has been percolating for a long time, going back to the first hearings on partial-birth abortion in the mid-1990s. Johnson called on the abortion industry to think about the pain inflicted on the fetus and said his organization strongly supports the legislation.
Animals Better Protected
The U.S. bishops' Pro-Life Secretariat called HR 4420 an urgently needed bill in light of the testimony that unborn children experience excruciating pain during later-term abortions. Spokeswoman Cathy Cleaver Ruse said this legislation reveals the humanity of the unborn child, and the more that is revealed, the less palatable abortion becomes.
“The fact is that there are more regulations governing animals experiencing pain than there are for unborn babies experiencing abortion,” Ruse said. “Human babies should be given at least as much consideration as an animal is.”
Abortion providers who do not comply with the regulations of the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act would be subject to civil penalties. First-time offenders would have their medical licenses suspended and would also be assessed a penalty of up to $100,000. Second-time offenders would have their medical licenses revoked and could be fined up to $200,000.
Neither NARAL Pro-Choice America nor Planned Parenthood responded to telephone calls seeking comment.
Brownback indicated he is looking to address the issue in the Senate this year, possibly by adding the legislation to what he called “an amendable vehicle.” He said that although the issue is still new to some people, it is one that is very fresh in many people's minds given the partial-birth abortion ban hearings.
Ruse hopes for a lot of public discussion on the issue, even if the bill doesn't pass the first time around. She said the legislation is more likely to follow in the footsteps of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which took a few years to become law.
“Nothing is easy,” she said. “It will be fought tooth and nail by the abortion industry and its supporters.”
Keith Peters writes from Spotsylvania, Virginia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Keith Peters ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Texas Bishops Reports On Meeting Pope DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:ROME — Keeping abreast of the concerns of 1 billion Catholics around the world takes a tremendous amount of administrative organization, and one Texas bishop said the Vatican has begun doing a very good job of keeping in touch with the pulse of local churches.
“This is my fourth ad limina visit to Rome, and the one this year is so far the best-organized one of all,” said Bishop Michael Pfeifer of San Angelo, Texas.
“There's a new awakening in the center of the Church to the needs in the local churches. There's a new effort to understand their needs and questions,” he said May 20 in an interview with Catholic News Service.
Bishops are required to make ad limina visits every five years to meet with the Pope and curial officials and to report on the status of their dioceses.
Bishop Pfeifer attended the May 16-22 visit with 22 other bishops from Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
“We bishops, as a group, were most concerned about education, and we made sure to point out all the lay efforts” under way in the dioceses, he said.
But Vatican officials brought up the need for new types of education for seminarians, “in particular, human formation and the psycho-sexual dimension,” he said.
Bishop Pfeifer said the bishops constantly have updated their standards for new seminarians.
He said the Church uses a special team of people to recruit new candidates.
“The team is also present in the seminary itself to help candidates know themselves as human beings and where they are with their sexuality,” he said.
“We use psychological testing, we look at their faith development and where they are with their calling from God,” he said. “We are using a lot more of the sciences” in screening and counseling programs.
“I was impressed with how well the Vatican was prepared and ready for our concerns. We felt free to express what we feel and the [Vatican] staff was very aware of what was going on in our dioceses,” Bishop Pfeifer said.
One reason Vatican officials are well prepared is that the bishops fill out and turn in a questionnaire to the Vatican prior to ad limina visits. Another reason, the bishop said, was that staffers in Vatican departments come from all over the world.
“There are Americans in the dicasteries, and so that helps because they are aware of our culture and situation,” he said.
One source of inspiration for most bishops on their ad limina visits is their meeting with the Pope.
“I made a special request to meet with John Paul on May 18, his birthday, because it's my birthday, too,” Bishop Pfeifer said.
“They actually granted my request,” he said. “So I learned how to say ‘happy birthday’ in Polish, which is actually saying, ‘May you live 100 years,’ which he just might do. And then I gave him birthday greetings in English and Spanish, as well as a gift that he really appreciated.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:Pope Calls for More Instruction Before Marriage
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 22 — More can be done to encourage lasting marriages, according to Pope John Paul II.
“Many today have a clear understanding of the secular nature of marriage,” he said, “which includes the rights and responsibilities modern societies hold as determining factors for a marital contract.” But, he said, according to the Associated Press, some “appear to lack a proper understanding of the intrinsically religious dimension of this covenant.”
The Pope made his remarks May 22 during an audience with bishops from Texas and Oklahoma, in Rome for their once-every-five-year ad limina visit.
“Modern society rarely pays heed to the permanent nature of marriage,” the Holy Father continued. “In fact, the attitude toward marriage found in contemporary culture demands that the Church seek to offer better premarital instruction aimed at forming couples in this vocation.”
Recently, the wire service reported, John Paul has spoken against “attempts to reduce marriage to a mere individual contract” and has called for and end to the approval of homosexual marriages.
John Paul Again Condemns Anti-Semitism
John Paul sent Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the Italian bishops' conference and papal vicar of Rome, and Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, to the ceremony. The Pope himself turned down the invitation to attend because he said he didn't want to take away from the “unique and historic” character of his 1986 visit, the Jerusalem Post reported.
“The Church has restated in a clear and definitive way the refusal of anti-Semitism in all its expressions,” the Holy Father said in his statement, read by Cardinal Ruini. “Still, even the dutiful deploration and condemnation of hostilities against the Jewish people, which often characterized histor y, isn't enough. We need to also develop friendship, esteem and brotherly relations” with Jews.
Media Need to Work in Service of Family, Pope Says
ASIANEWS, May 23 — Catholics must call upon Mary and the Holy Spirit and pray for the media to “perform their work according to a genuine apostolic spirit,” Pope John Paul II said May 23, the celebration by the Church of the World Day of Communications.
The theme of the World Day of Communications was “Media in the Family: A Risk and Valuable Resource.”
Speaking to a crowd below his apartment window overlooking St. Peter's Square, John Paul said the media is a valuable educational tool but parents must also take responsibility so “improper and even distorted viewpoints” do not make their way into homes and society, the news service reported.
“The media can bring great harm to families when presenting improper or even distorted views of life, the family, religion and morality,” the Holy Father said. “We must learn how to use them both wisely and prudently.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace Looks at Africa's Problems DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — In purely economic terms, Africa is frequently headlined in the press as the “hopeless continent.”
But as participants at a recent Vatican conference were quick to note, in Christian terms such “hopelessness” is a call to action, not despair.
Statistically, one can see why Africa is viewed so gloomily. According to figures from the World Bank and nongovernmental organizations, 70% of its population survives on less than $2 a day; poverty has increased 43% in the last 10 years and, to top it all, Africa faces a crippling debt of $300 billion.
“In terms of economic growth, Africa's actually going backward,” said Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society in London. “For a few, the standard of living has improved, but if you're at the bottom of the pile, you're even worse off, the poorest of the poor, squeezed out and left behind.”
Cardinal Christian Tumi, archbishop of Douala in Cameroon, also sees a bleak picture.
“On the economic level, I don't see any change in the life of the people,” he told the Register. “Many can't take their children to primary school, others don't have the means to go to the hospital.”
Such is the economic plight facing so many people in Africa that the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace decided to host a symposium on May 21 titled “The Social and Economic Development of Africa in the Era of Globalization.”
The meeting drew on the expertise of scholars, representatives from the Church, Catholic nongovernmental organizations, and African and non-African ambassadors to the Holy See.
In his concluding remarks, Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the pontifical council, announced the publication of a document on poverty in the era of globalization and the formation of a permanent study group to reflect upon what more could be done on the continent.
Debates at the symposium centered on how Africa could better participate in globalization and how, through trade reforms, it might actually benefit.
Msgr. Frank Dewane, under-secretary of the pontifical council, underlined the “devastating” impact of some U.S. and European Union trade practices.
“If subsidies are so high for cotton in some of the developed countries that the farmer growing cotton in Africa simply can't compete,” he said, then “economic growth is retarded.”
Dowden agreed, arguing that “we need to be just toward Africa — we need a level playing field in terms of trade.”
The United States, he said, “pays more in cotton subsidies than it does in aid to Africa. We need to give Africa the means with which it can serve its own living.”
But for fairer trade practices to work, there must, according to Dowden, be necessary protection and support to build Africa's economies. The continent is not ready at the moment, he said, because “it's been knocked back so far.”
Msgr. Dewane is of a similar mind: “The Holy Father often uses an image of the human family, and in every family, what the structure does is work to protect the weak members,” he said.
“What our human family has to do today,” Msgr. Dewane added, “is look at Africa and provide the protection it may need so that it can kick-start, so that it can jump.”
Obstacles
But there are many obstacles to ensuring economic growth is given a freer run. Civil wars and tribal disputes continue to rage in many parts of Africa.
“There's a lot of bloodshed going on,” Msgr. Dewane said, creating an atmosphere where investment and growth is “retarded.”
HIV/AIDS is another factor, with some areas of high infection set to lose up to 40% of their young population.
Furthermore, each year African governments pay out more in debt to creditors than they receive in development assistance or new loans, draining resources that could be spent on poverty reduction and basic social services.
It is a “tremendous burden,” Msgr. Dewane said. And despite some relief granted around the Jubilee Year, “not a whole lot has been realized“ in the area of debt reduction, he noted.
Another issue discussed was that of corruption and the need for good governance. Msgr. Dewane stressed that improvement here was not simply a question of reforming African structures and systems; it is also about tackling outsiders who encourage such corruption.
A bribe, he pointed out, involves two people. “There is somebody paying it,” he said, “and they're usually from the developed world.”
Even so, Africa still has a pressing need for governmental reform. If sub-Saharan Africa is “in a mess,” Tanzania's founding president Julius Nyerere once said, it is a mess made by its leaders.
And although there are glimmers of hope in the form of democratically elected governments, Africa is continually constrained by dictatorships and the system that put them there.
“Our fundamental problem is political,” Cardinal Tumi said in agreement. “Those who are in power do everything possible, good or bad, to remain in power,” and that often includes “changing their constitution” to suit their needs.
“I get the impression we are dealing with regimes that simply do not care and, if you are dealing with administrations that do not care,” Cardinal Tumi said, “well then nothing can be achieved.”
Progress
Yet despite the bleak picture, progress has been made. Botswana, for example, is leading the way, eliminating widespread corruption and boasting economic growth to rival western nations.
But analysts agree that the future of the continent primarily rests with the resilient and positive Africans themselves.
“I am surely optimistic about the future,” Cardinal Tumi said. “Every situation can change, but much depends on man. Man can do and undo.”
Edward Pentin writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: God Condemns Evil and Rewards Faithfulness DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:Register Summary
Pope John Paul II met with 15,000 pilgrims in St. Peter's Square for his general audience May 26. He continued his teachings on the psalms and canticles of the Liturgy of the Hours with a meditation on a canticle found in Chapters 11 and 12 of the Book of Revelation.
The canticle, which is probably an ancient liturgical hymn of the early Church, is a hymn of praise to God, the Lord of history and of the world, who is about to establish his kingdom of justice, love and truth.
“In this prayer, we hear the heartbeat of the righteous, who await in hope the coming of the Lord,” the Holy Father said. “He will cast his light on those events in the history of mankind that are often immersed in the darkness of sin, injustice, deceit and violence.”
God condemns evil and rewards faithfulness, the Pope noted, but he is not lacking in compassion: “He is justice, but above all he is love.” Satan, the accuser, is cast out and has no more power over the righteous, the Holy Father said, thanks to the passion and death of Christ the Redeemer, and the heavenly hosts are invited to sing out in joy for the salvation that has been wrought.
At the end of his talk, John Paul encouraged all believers to join in a great hymn of “festive thanksgiving that is full of hope, despite the trials that mark our journey toward glory.” He recalled the last words of St. Polycarp of Smyrna, an early Christian martyr, whose prayer echoed the words of the canticle.
The canticle we have just lifted up to the Lord God Almighty, which is part of the Liturgy of the Hours' evening prayer, consists of a selection of verses from Chapters 11 and 12 of the Book of Revelation. The last of the seven trumpets that resound in this book of struggle and hope has just blared. At this point, the 24 elders of the heavenly court, who represent all the righteous people of the Old and New Covenant (see Revelation 4:4, 11:16), sing out a hymn that was probably already being used in the early Church's liturgical gatherings. They are worshipping God, the ruler of history and of the world, who is now ready to establish his kingdom of justice, love and truth.
In this prayer, we hear the heartbeats of the righteous, who await in hope the coming of the Lord; he will cast his light on those events in the history of mankind that are often immersed in the darkness of sin, injustice, deceit and violence.
The song the 24 elders sing refers to two psalms: Psalm 2, which is a messianic song (see 2:1-5), and Psalm 99, which celebrates God's kingship (see 99:1). Thus, the Lord's just and final judgment, which he is just about to carry out over the entire history of mankind, is exalted.
King and Judge
There are two aspects to this valuable intervention, just as there are two characteristics that describe God's nature. Indeed, he is the judge, but he is also the Savior; he condemns evil but rewards faithfulness; he is justice, but above all he is love.
The identities of those who are righteous — those who have been saved and are now in the Kingdom of God — are important. They span three categories of the “servants” of the Lord: namely, the prophets, the saints and those who fear his name (see Revelation 11:18). It is a sort of spiritual portrait of God's people, according to the gifts they have received in baptism and that have been brought to fruition through a life of faith and love — a portrait that is embodied in both those who are small and those who are great (see Revelation 19:5).
A Spiritual Battle
As we already noted, this hymn is further elaborated by using some verses from Chapter 12, which refer to a rather grandiose and glorious scene from the Book of Revelation. In this scene, the woman who gave birth to the Messiah clashes with the dragon of wickedness and violence. In this duel between good and evil, between the Church and Satan, a heavenly voice suddenly resounds to announce the defeat of the “accuser” (see 12:10). This word is a translation of the Hebrew word Satán, which, according to the Book of Job, is given to a member of God's heavenly court who fulfills the role of public prosecutor (see Job 1:9-11, 2:4-5; Zechariah 3:1).
He casts doubt upon the sincerity of the faith of those who are righteous and “accuses them day and night before our God.” At this point, though, this satanic dragon is silenced; “the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 12:11), the passion and death of Christ our Redeemer, is at the root of his defeat.
Blood of Martyrs
The witness of those Christians who were martyred is associated with Christ's victory. The faithful who did not waver, those whose “love for life did not deter them from death” (see Revelation 12:11), share an intimate part in the redeeming work of the Lamb.
This reminds us of Christ's words: “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life” (John 12:25).
The heavenly soloist singing this canticle concludes with an invitation to the entire angelic choir to join in this hymn of joy for the salvation that has been wrought (see Revelation 12:12). Let us join our voices with his in festive thanksgiving that is full of hope, despite the trials that mark our journey toward glory.
Let us do so by listening to the words that St. Polycarp the martyr addressed to the Lord God Almighty after he had been bound to be burned at the stake: “Lord God Almighty, Father of your blessed and beloved Son, Jesus Christ … be blessed for having judged me worthy this day and this hour to be numbered among your martyrs and to share in the cup of Christ for resurrection to eternal life of the body and soul in the incorruptibility of the Holy Spirit. Grant that before you this day I may be accepted among them as a rich and pleasing sacrifice, just as you, the faithful and true God, have prepared, revealed and fulfilled beforehand. For this reason and for all things I praise you, I bless you, and I glorify you, through the eternal and heavenly high priest, your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, through whom be glory to you, with him and the Holy Spirit, now and for ages to come. Amen” (Atti e Passioni dei Martiri, Milan, 1987, p. 23).
(Register translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Raider of Noah's Lost Ark DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:HONOLULU — A Catholic activist from Hawaii has announced plans for an expedition this summer to locate and explore Noah's Ark on the forbidding slopes of Mount Ararat in Turkey.
Daniel McGivern, president of Shamrock-The Trinity Corp., told a Washington press conference in late May that the site of the vessel described in the Old Testament has been identified by satellite photography. McGivern said last year's heat wave that killed thousands of people across Europe also reduced the ice field atop Mount Ararat, exposing the ark to be photographed.
“I am 90% certain we have found it, but we won't know for sure till we get up there,” he told the Register.
However, a man who has led several searches for the ark warned that the 17,000-foot Mount Ararat is “huge and dangerous.”
“The Ahora Gorge [where the search will focus] is big enough to hold the Grand Canyon twice over,” added Dr. John Morris, president of the Institute for Creation Research in Santee, Calif. “The rock is rotten and landslides are frequent. We were attacked by wolves and bears and shot at.”
Moreover, he noted, “It is a staging area for Kurdish terrorists.”
McGivern, a journalist turned marketing mogul, said he expected to recover the $900,000 cost of the project by making a movie.
“Trinity is a for-profit corporation,” he acknowledged.
But the current expedition has a much more important goal, he said.
“It is, frankly, to bring people to faith in God and his Church,” McGivern said. “It is an unbelieving world out there.”
Multi-Religion Quest
McGivern, who has led both pro-life and pro-family groups in Hawaii and testified at the state Legislature against Hawaii's euthanasia law, said he hopes the project's participants will include Jews, Muslims and Christians, since all three religions share a belief in the scriptural account of how Noah built the ark to preserve a remnant of humanity and other living creatures from a great flood.
“We want Jews, Christians and Muslims on the same rope depending on each other,” he said. At the same time, he is looking for archeologists, scientists and forensic experts both for the climb itself and for helicopter-borne parties to examine the site once it is located.
The expedition will be led by Ahmet Ali Arslan, an English professor at Seljuk University in Konya, Turkey, and an experienced Ararat climber.
The expedition has the moral support of the Institute of Creation Research. The institute is the ideological heart of the creation science movement and its efforts to place scientific explanations of life's origins in public-school science curriculums that are compatible with Old Testament creation accounts in Genesis.
The institute's Morris, who holds a doctorate in geology, said the discovery of the ark would be the death knell for evolution, based as it is on a uniformly gradual development of new life forms from old over millions of years.
“A catastrophic flood means the basic assumption of uniformity is wrong,” Morris said, because the deposit of fossils in the “geological column” could not have been as orderly as science presumes and because all existing life would have had to develop in only a few thousand years.
Morris noted that virtually all human cultures retain folkloric memories of a great flood, “because we all descended from Noah.” Also, “there is a great deal of evidence geologically,” Morris contended, but it is presently misinterpreted by most scientists. The discovery of a wooden vessel on Mount Ararat would lead geologists to reinterpret the geological data accordingly.
‘Our faith has gotten along for thousands of years without having a ship on the mountain.’
Skeptics
Skeptics abound. The Internet's atheist, humanist and agnostic sites were abuzz within days of McGivern's announcement with derisive comments related to failed expeditions of the past.
Fred Edwords, editorial director for the American Humanist Association, said that while he expected this “quixotic adventure” to be a flop along with earlier ones, it wouldn't shake the faith of human-ists even if a ship were to turn up.
“I know that creation-science people believe that proof of the flood would disprove evolution,” he said. “But humanism doesn't necessarily depend on evolution. Finding this boat wouldn't destroy the whole geological column because there are so many problems with the flood-laid geological model they propose as an alternative.”
If the remnants of a vessel were to be found, Edwords suggested, “it could be some kind of a monument put up there in the Middle Ages. But in all likelihood what they've spotted on their satellite images are some rock outcroppings. And I hope they do find them so that we can put it all to rest.”
Father James Hanrahan, principal of St. Mark's Theology College in Vancouver, British Columbia, doubted that discovery of an ark would have much impact on Catholic faith.
“It would be profoundly interesting to find a ship on Mount Ararat,” he said. “But I don't know how anyone would know it was Noah's Ark. The fact is, our faith has gotten along for thousands of years without having a ship on the mountain, so I don't think it would be very important now.”
Father Hanrahan said the Catholic Church does not teach that Old Testament accounts such as Noah's Ark are historically true. Instead, he said, “They are literally true in the sense intended by God and the human author.”
The story of Noah, Father Hanrahan added, is true in the sense that “Noah is a figure of Christ who brings salvation to the world. He is meant to describe to us the constant saving love of God.”
McGivern said several years ago he made a list of 10 things he wanted to do with his life, with the finding of Noah's Ark at the top. He created Shamrock-The Trinity Corp. to accomplish his goals and expects the revenue from the movie to finance his next project.
What will that be? “I'll tell,” McGivern replied, “when I get to it.”
Steve Weatherbe writes from Victoria, British Columbia.
----- EXCERPT: Catholic Layman Launches Turkish Expedition to Find Noah's Ark ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steve Weatherbe ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:French Bishops Oppose Same-Sex ‘Marriage’
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 21 — France's Catholic bishops spoke out against same-sex marriage in a letter published May 21 in two of the country's newspapers responding to an article about a summer “marriage” between two men.
“I must state my disagreement,” wrote Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard of Bordeaux, president of the Conference of Bishops of France. “Our society could not put the union of a man and women, which can lead to the birth of new human beings, on the same plane as two like beings, which cannot.”
Marriage, Archbishop Ricard added, “assures the renewal of generations … which is not the case of a union between persons of the same sex,” the Associated Press reported.
Noel Mamere, a Green Party lawmaker, has made it public that he plans to perform the country's first homosexual wedding June 5.
Scottish Cardinal: Renew Religious Observances
Cardinal Keith O'Brien also encouraged members of all Scottish churches to remember their common roots and the fact that they celebrate the same feast days — Christmas, Easter and St. Andrew's Day, the Glasgow Herald reported.
“We must pray at home with our families; we must ensure that relationship to God in prayer is at the root of everything that goes on in our schools, Catholic and nondenominational,” the cardinal said.
The call for more prayer in schools came after the Scottish Executive recommended a move to “broaden” spiritual development, the paper reported, as well as to limit the number of religious assemblies.
South African Bishops Told to Prepare for 2010 World Cup
NEWS24.COM (South Africa), May 24 — South Africa's Catholic newspaper has called on the country's Catholic leaders to be prepared for the 2010 World Cup soccer championship in South Africa.
“The Catholic Church itself has a role to play in 2010,” the Southern Cross stated in an editorial. “As in every World Cup, many of the competing teams and their supporters will come from countries where the Catholic Church is strongly represented.”
“Many players themselves are devoutly Catholic,” it added, “if the pre-match and post-goal blessing ritual is an indicator of devotion.”
The newspaper advised the Church to add extra Masses to handle the influx of Catholics and to hold services in the languages of visiting fans.
Thousands Gather for EU Mass in Austria
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, May 22 — Tens of thousands of Catholics gathered May 21-23 in the Austrian Alps to promote reconciliation among the countries recently united in the European Union.
The events culminated in a Mass led by Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano. Pope John Paul II gave his blessing to the event in German via a video linkup, Agence France-Presse reported.
“We are expressing our faith in the Christian foundations of Europe,” Cardinal Schonborn said at the Mass.
Leaders of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia and Bosnia also attended the event.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Brain Death Debate DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:Some have argued that the Pope's brain-death statements were misread.
Dr. Paul Byrne, a neonatologist practicing in Ohio and a past president of the Catholic Medical Association, was a co-author, with Bishops Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb., and Robert Vasa of Baker, Ore., and others of a March 2001 essay in Catholic World Report saying the Pope's address was misinterpreted to give unconditional approval for organ transplantation. The essay's authors saw his talk as a “strong condemnation of the inhumane procedures and violations of natural moral law that presently occur with the transplantation of certain organs.”
They correctly pointed out that there is no consistent U.S. standard of brain death.
“The removal of a healthy unpaired vital organ suitable for transplantation from someone who has been legally declared ‘brain dead’ but is not truly biologically dead is not ethically acceptable,” the essayists declared.
They also suggested the Pope had been misinformed about “clearly determined parameters commonly held by the international scientific community” involved in the determination of brain death. No such parameters exist, they said.
Noting that the Pope used the word “seem” when he said the brain-death criterion “does not seem to conflict with the essential elements of a sound anthropology,” the group insisted that he “indicates that the matter has not been completely resolved.”
The Pope went on in his address, however, to say that doctors using the brain-death criterion can reach the sufficient moral certainty to proceed with the transplant operation and will be thereby acting in an ethically correct manner.
And Bishop Elio Sgreccia, vice president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, in a response to a letter from an American surgeon in 2001, said the essay does not reflect the official doctrine of the Church. He restated guidelines issued by the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers in its “Charter for Health Care Workers” in 1995: “Persons are dead when they have irreversibly lost all ability to integrate and coordinate the physical and mental functions of the body.”
Bishop Sgreccia said death has occurred either when the spontaneous functions of the heart and breathing have definitively ceased or with the irreversible arrest of all brain activity.
“In reality, he said, “brain death is the true criterion of death, although the definitive arrest of cardiorespira-tory activity very quickly leads to brain death.”
— Ellen Rossini
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Rossini ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Oregon's Suicide DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:The tragic Oregon law that turned doctors into killers wasn't merely a local matter.
It implicated the federal government as well.
In order to prescribe deadly doses of controlled medicines, doctors needed the permission of the U.S. attorney general.
In the last administration, that office was glad to give the green light. But allowing medicines to kill runs counter to the very purpose the federal government has in regulating medicines to begin with.
So Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that he would return to a policy in which only legitimate drugs and doses were allowed by regulators. In a letter to Drug Enforcement Administration head Asa Hutchinson, he said in 2001 that henceforth, if doctors chose to be poison-peddlers, the government would suspend or revoke their licenses.
Ashcroft's move would have effectively invalidated Oregon's assisted-suicide law, and Oregon's attorney general didn't like it. A federal appeals court agreed and gave him a victory on May 25.
Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers said he was fighting for the law — and for his turf. “From our perspective, this is a clear defense not just of the Death With Dignity Act but a clear defense of a state's authority to regulate its own medical practices,” his office said.
Of course a state has every right to regulate its own medical practices. But assisted suicide isn't a medical practice.
For instance, take one troubling fact that has haunted the suicide law from the beginning: the prevalence of botched suicides.
Shortly after the Oregon suicide law went into effect, Catherine Hamilton, a member of Physicians for Compassionate Care, taped a workshop at Portland Community College called “Assisted Suicide: Counseling Patients/Clients.”
Keynote speaker Cynthia Barrett, an attorney, referred to the botched-suicide problem. Barrett told of “a man who completed the required state forms and then took a physician-prescribed lethal medication with his family looking on. Soon, he began suffering unsavory and disturbing symptoms — symptoms severe enough to traumatize his wife, who called 911. Paramedics took the man to a Portland hospital and revived him. He was later taken to a nursing facility. … He died sometime later.”
Botched legal suicides still plague Oregon.
The Oregon Department of Human Services' recently released report on assisted suicide for 2003 describes a patient who drank one-half of the fatal medication he had been prescribed. But then he vomited a third of it.
He didn't finish his poison, but the small amount he had consumed began to take effect. Usually, if a patient survives the first six hours after taking the short-acting barbiturate, he will most likely live. Not so for this unfortunate man. He lived another 48 hours before dying.
Here we see the basic difference between medical practice and suicide. In a botched medical practice, a patient's health could be diminished or his life might be endangered. In a botched suicide, his life is prolonged.
Assisted-suicide opponents point out that botched suicides make the law vulnerable to abuse. In many cases, the doctor is not present when the poison is drunk. What is done with unconsumed poison? When a patient's suicide is botched, what if he kills himself another way? In a case where a frightened patient vomits his own suicide prescription, where is the so-called death with dignity?
And some suicides that aren't botched are nothing like what the law intended. What about the many cases of suicide patients who were found to be clinically depressed? Are these mercy killings or just a society agreeing with a chemically unbalanced man's despair? Are the law's supporters outraged that these people are wrongly killed, or has the assisted-suicide law deadened sensitivities?
What we forget is that doctor-assisted suicide will always be a matter of the strong preying on the sick and weak. It is diabolical to instruct doctors to approach patients at their lowest point mentally and say, “I can help you end it all.”
On May 25, the appeals court didn't ratify Oregon's right to “regulate its own medical practices.”
It exempted Oregon from laws that prohibit poison.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:No Wiggle Room
In “Governor Will Stop Receiving Communion in Public” (News in Brief, May 16-22), we find Gov. James McGreevey of New Jersey stating that, in response to Newark Archbishop John Myers' pastoral letter, he will no longer receive holy Communion publicly. He needs to add “nor privately,” since reverence for the Eucharist is the principal reason for the interdict canon law imposes on public sinners.
In the same issue good Cardinal Adam Maida of Detroit tells us that “the reception of the sacraments must be applied in the context of different cultures and it can be applied in different ways” (“Back to the Church's Roots in Tough Times,” Inperson). In general that is true, but in relation to the Eucharist, canon law is specific, decisive and unequivocal: “Those who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy Communion.” There's no wiggle room here even (and especially, I might add) for Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
As our Holy Father frequently reminds us: We must transform the culture rather than allowing ourselves to be transformed by the culture.
Father Bernardine Hahn, OFM
St. Louis
Abu Ghraib's Porn Link
Regarding “Pornography and Iraq” (Editorial, May 16-22):
We know pornography is the offspring of our culture's obsession with sexual matters over many years. Just looking at many of the movies and Broadway shows of the early ‧30s and even earlier, the female figure — especially in chorus lines — was about erotic as it could get, a gradual seduction that found its way to more and more bodily exposure and sexually explicit dialogue. In short, this whole cultural shift has been a long time in coming.
The self-indulgence that pornography promotes leads to exploitation, cruelty and violence. It depicts women and men as devoid of personhood and frequently weaves violence with sex. A person who no longer guides his life on principles of fidelity treats people any way he wants. Enter sadism.
Many members of our society have had pornography ingrained in their psyche over who knows how many years, a steady diet of porn carrying the sadistic seed. It has now come to pass this sadism component of porn has shown its ugly face to the whole world. The naiveté of persons who just “can't understand” how some American soldiers could conceivably do such a thing blows me away. Where have they been all those years? Do we share the same planet?
Did Isaiah have it right? “With their ears they have been hard of hearing and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they see with their eyes, hear with their ears and understand with their mind” (Isaiah 6:9-11).
Aubert Lemrise
Peru, Illinois
Protect Future Communicants
Overall I was deeply puzzled by the response of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Theodore McCarrick regarding Communion and pro-abortion politicians (“Invigorated by the Holy Father,” Inperson, May 9-15).
Christ's teachings clearly give preferential care to the least of our brethren: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). But Cardinal McCarrick and most Catholic bishops appear to be choosing not to give preferential care to the least of our pre-born brethren where the bishops have most control — that is, at the Communion moment.
Incredibly, as matters are now developing, it appears many bishops are openly choosing to cooperate with the abortion politicians in their supreme, practical, public witness to moral falsity at the Communion moment. How perplexing, since no one can serve two masters, and the objective evidence of a public, notorious, unrepentant, five-time voter against a ban on partial-birth abortion, like Sen. John Kerry, being cooperated with at the Communion moment has to reveal much about a bishop's allegiance and has to be a first-rate scandal.
Thus some of our bishops seem to be giving only lip service to the evils of abortion while their practical actions are giving preferential care to the “important” political procurers of legal abortion.
In sum, while many bishops talk conscience and tolerance for pro-abortion supporters, their practical actions are intolerant of including the possibility for the pre-born abortion victims to ever exercise their conscience and to ever receive the Body and Blood of Christ.
Frank Strelchun, PH.D.
Canaan, Connecticut
Political vs. Spiritual
With reference to the controversy over whether or not pro-abortion politicians should be given holy Communion (“On Receiving Communion,” May 9-15) and especially the article “Faith in the Spotlight” (April 25-May 1): It seems the bishops are more concerned about the political aspects rather than the spiritual.
Cardinals, bishops and priests were not ordained to be politicians; nor were they ordained to back away from powerful politicians or the state. They were ordained to teach the truth, save souls and protect the innocent. They should not be concerned that any faith-based decisions they make will have any impact on a political situation. If their decisions happen to affect so-called Catholic politicians, especially those who not only vote for pro-abortion legislation but also actually promote abortion, so be it. The truth is that anyone who is not in a state of grace should not receive Communion and to do so is a sacrilege against the Eucharist. Are not those who give Communion to people they know are not worthy to receive it contributing to the sacrilege?
The reports are that the bishops will not decide on what to do with these so-called Catholic politicians until after the elections. If the bishops do not define the Catholic doctrines prior to the elections, especially those concerning abortion, and a so-called Catholic politician gets elected president, the first thing he will do is cancel the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits the use of U.S. tax dollars by organizations that provide for abortions or that lobby for and promote abortion. He will sign every pro-abortion bill, veto every pro-life bill and appoint pro-abortion judges to the Supreme Court.
If the bishops allow this, it will be a much greater scandal than the sex scandal that rocked the Church, for it will mean the murder of millions of additional innocent babies — not only over the next four years but also for years to come.
Gerard P. Mcevoy
Coram, New York
OH, HAPPY ACCIDENT
Just after we went to press with our May 23-29 issue, we received a photo that, had it arrived a few hours earlier, would have accompanied “The Franciscan Four Go to Washington” on the Books & Education page. The article told about four legal-studies students from Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, whose diligent research into forced abortions has reached the U.S. Supreme Court via a brief filed by attorney Christopher Sapp for the case Jane Roe II v. Aware Women Center for Choice Inc. Now we've learned that two of the students' names we were given had been misspelled. We know a second chance to run a great photo when we see one. So here's the photo and here, from the bottom looking up — with all names correctly spelled — are students Anne Marie Morris, Shane Haselbarth and Shannon Andreyanova, along with Sapp and Third Order Regular Franciscan Father Terence Henry, president of Franciscan University. Missing from the photo is student Heather McCombs.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: To Transform Tinselstown DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:Regarding “Whither Hollywood, Post-Passion” by Jay Dunlap (Commentary, May 9-15):
It would be wonderful if Mel Gibson could make films about the Crusades or the life of St. Patrick, as the column suggests. Let's be realistic. Gibson is a voice in the wilderness. Hollywood is still hostile to Christianity and that is not likely to change.
There is another option. That is for Catholics to form theater companies in every city in America. Writers, directors and actors can pool their talent and stage inspiring works.
We at Quo Vadis did just that. We formed this theater company to put on plays about the great historical figures of the faith. We write and produce our own dramas. The response of the public has been excellent. In fact, our plays have been requested by college theaters in the United States, Canada and Australia.
We believe this grass-roots approach can be a powerful tool in winning the hearts and minds of our youth today. Interested persons can write to Quo Vadis, P.O. Box 9023, San Jose, CA 95157 or phone (408) 282-3530.
Cathal Gallagher
San Jose, California
Quo Vadis Theatre
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: FDR Democrat to Roe Republican DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:Catholic voters can drive abortion from party politics; but do we have such moral courage?
I remember as a boy that our family, as everyone else, moved effortlessly from the height of the Depression into the weight of World War II. I did not know at the time that we were economically deprived — kids from loving parents don't see that. All I knew was that life is good and the idea of a new, big war sounded exciting — like a ball game. But I was a boy.
Our president was FDR. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the larger-than-life man who led us through the Depression, and I was sure he would lead us to victory over the “Axis Powers.”
Our family home was a citadel for the philosophy of the Democratic Party. Both parents descended from Irish immigrants who had felt the stings and exclusions of the new world. Next to the Catholic Church, it was the Democratic Party that gave hope to immigrant groups to rise within this culture.
My father spoke of Roosevelt's contributions to our family, particularly through the establishment of the Federal Housing Administration, which allowed my dad to get his only mortgage of his only house in a small tract in New Jersey.
So we were loyal Dems. But our new neighborhood wasn't.
Around 1944, my dad signed on to be the campaign manager for a local man running for mayor. The only problem for me was that the man he served was a Republican. Our small former farming town had no Democratic Party nor apparatus. Everyone was Republican. The primary election determined the Republican victor.
I had not picked up on this nuance and was stunned to learn that my dad had registered as a local Republican. He explained the reality of primary elections and the duty of citizens to become involved in their communities. He said he voted Democratic in national elections. Yet for a few weeks I thought him to be a “fifth columnist,” perhaps a traitor siding with the “Axis Powers.”
I remained a committed Democrat through the presidencies of FDR, Harry S. Truman, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson — and through Adlai Stevenson's two losses as well.
In 1964, I worked locally for Johnson's campaign but later began to find problems with some of the social programs I had strongly supported.
It seemed to me that some of the projects that had aimed at helping poor women and children unintentionally chipped away at the fiber of their families and their men. Women received economic support from the federal government only if their men were absent, which some social scientists say destroyed the integrity of these families.
With Roe v. Wade, in 1973, things in my Democratic Party began to take a worse turn.
Initially, Democrat stalwarts such as Sen. Ted Kennedy and the Rev. Jesse Jackson opposed abortion on demand. Their statements opposing abortion are astounding. They appear in National Right to Life publications. Then the realities and personal ambitions of politics took over. Increasingly, the Democratic Party bent to a “pro-choice” onslaught led by strong, committed “women's-rights” organizations.
At the Democratic Convention in 1992, the party proved it would not support a pro-life option. Convention leaders publicly humiliated and destroyed the political career of Bob Casey, former governor of Pennsylvania and the leading pro-life voice in the Democratic Party. While Casey was denied any chance to speak, the convention leaders handed over the microphone to an invited group of pro-abortion Republicans, including some from Casey's state.
I left the Democrats and registered as an Independent. I have not voted for a Democrat in any federal election since 1976. But in my heart, I could not become a Republican. I was still too philosophically dissimilar.
Then I became my dad.
A friend reminded me that we live in a Republican town in which Democrats and Independents have only a token appearance. Republicans win their seats in the primary election. I had wasted my vote by not voting in the primary. So, gulp, I registered as a Republican.
I fully understood my dad's move 60 years ago.
My former party promotes a death choice that many millions of Americans cannot in conscience join. That does not mean that the Republican Party raises up disciples of Lincoln. But the GOP embraces a life-supporting position in its party platform. For me, it is not Bush vs. Kerry that commands but the morality concerning human life as expressed in party commitments.
For reasons of party loyalty, habit or personal gain, politicians and voters bartered away centuries-old protections for innocent human life at a stage that we, the living, have all passed through in safety. Am I not also involved in these deaths if I support the death-bringers?
Citing citizens of World War II Germany, Holocaust scholar Daniel Goldhagen makes a case that I am guilty if I remain silent and inactive. Should I shrug that off and use my vote to support economic policies, to strengthen my union or make the trains run on time?
Even were I to vote for abortion supporters because of other issues, the stain from the death of another innocent human life remains. That is my choice, as it is of every other voter. If Catholics whose faith condemns abortion would vote that faith, the Democratic Party would drop its pro-death platform by the next election.
When will we vote as committed Catholics as other groups vote, in blocs? We have that opportunity, but only if we find moral conviction and personal courage.
Drew DeCoursey, author of Lifting the Veil of Choice (OSV, 1992), writes from Morristown, New Jersey.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Drew DeCoursey ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Priests of the Greatest Generation DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:The 60th anniversary of D-Day turns our attention to what is popularly known as the “greatest generation” — the soldiers and civilians who survived the Depression and won the War. The spirit of service and sacrifice that generation exhibited is now celebrated as a high point of the American character.
The character of the greatest generation did not limit itself to feats of bravery on the battlefield.
When they returned home they did the long, hard work of establishing the peace and prosperity that marked mid-20th-century America. There were big projects to be sure — the interstate highway system at home, the challenge of the Cold War abroad — but for the most part the greatest generation came back, got married, raised children, went to college, bought homes and did the daily work of the postwar economic expansion. In war and peace, they lived the virtues of fidelity, sacrifice and duty that were thought to be lacking from the generation that followed them.
That's popular history.
It rings true, largely because most of us know a member of that greatest generation who seems to embody everything that is written about it.
The man I know is Charles Elmer, a Texan transplanted from Iron Mountain, Mich., who fought at Normandy as a young soldier. He is an old priest now. A member of the greatest generation to be sure, Msgr. Elmer also belongs to a generation of priests who could also be considered a “greatest generation” with a story of their own. They are, like the veterans of D-Day, dying out now, and their service should not go unremarked.
I got to know Msgr. Elmer in the seminary, already past his 75th year. He devoted almost half of his 50-plus years of priesthood to the Pontifical North American College in Rome. Now “retired” from there, he continues to work at the seminary in Houston.
We knew he had fought on D-Day, but he never told us much about it.
Like many World War II veterans, he did not speak easily about his wartime experiences. When we asked him what he thought of Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, he told us he had no desire to see it — it was enough to have lived through it.
On the few occasions when he did speak about World War II, it was to make a spiritual point — about how he wore his rosary around his neck, under his uniform, before landing at Normandy.
He returned from the horrors of war with his faith intact and entered the seminary. He was ordained a priest in December 1952. When he celebrated his 50th jubilee in 2002, American Catholics in Rome, led by three cardinals, paid him tribute at his anniversary Mass.
In those 50 years, Msgr. Elmer and the faithful priests of his generation lived through a tumultuous period in the history of the priesthood.
Like the other members of the greatest generation, they came home to begin their long daily work — celebrating Mass, hearing the long lines of Saturday confessions, running parishes, building schools (and then teaching in them) and developing the robust Catholic culture of the 1950s. That's how it started for Msgr. Elmer and his classmates; little did they know that the world was about to change.
Already 10 years ordained when the Second Vatican Council began, the greatest generation of priests likely shared the council's optimism about a great missionary expansion for the Church. By all measures the Church was strong at home, courageous in the face of persecution abroad, and the priest occupied the heights of prestige in popular culture, with fictional ones like Bing Crosby dominating the silver screen while real ones like Fulton Sheen dominated the new medium of television.
It was a great time to be a priest.
But then the greatest generation of priests would have their faith tested, perhaps in ways that even the war had not. The aftermath of the council and the upheavals of the 1960s dealt a body blow to the culture and left the Church reeling. The publication of Humanae Vitae in 1968 was greeted with a wave of dissent — often led by priests.
Within 15 years of the council, the Mass had become for many a politicized battleground, those long lines of confessions were no more, parishes were dismantling the very churches built by their grandparents and the schools were suffering from an exodus of the religious sisters.
Most difficult of all were the defections from the priesthood. Today the news of a priest who has left the priestly life is devastating news for his classmates and brother priests — news greeted with great sadness for the man in question. For the greatest generation the sheer number of their brothers who left provoked not only sadness but also a lack of confidence in their own vocations.
It seemed as though the ones who stayed had to explain to themselves why they were staying. It seemed the thing to do was to leave.
Another member of that greatest generation, Father Joseph Henchey, my old confessor and now “retired” from Rome to continue working at Pope John XXIII seminary in Boston, once related a story from the 1970s when he was a superior in his Stigmatine order. Present for an address by Pope Paul VI to a conference of male religious superiors, Father Henchey related how the discouraged pope raised his head and wondered aloud, “Is anyone listening to me?” It was a difficult time to be a priest.
By his 50th year as a priest, Msgr. Elmer's generation's work was largely done. Yet the sexual-abuse crisis provided him and his brothers with another opportunity to serve, sharing their wisdom with their many sons who had become bishops and encouraging those of us preparing to become priests.
And they prayed for their brothers who had fallen.
The wisdom Msgr. Elmer passed along was simple. So simple, in fact, that it would have seemed trite from anyone whose life had not been sealed with the witness he had given.
“Do you realize how much God loves you?” was the question he put to us repeatedly. It would have been easy enough to mock him — and we occasionally did around the cribbage board! — but his insistence on the basics made me think that St. John the Apostle, as an old man writing his epistles, must have been saying something like this: “God is love. Love one another.”
It is not rare to hear among younger priests and lay people complaints — and even ridicule — of the elderly generation of priests, whether it be their liturgical style or their homilies or their management style. Partly that is understandable, as every generation has the conceit of being superior to those who came before. At the same time, such criticism is unduly harsh toward men who have borne the heat of the battle and remained faithful.
The priesthood into which the greatest generation was ordained has changed in many ways. Yet at its heart, it has remained what is always is, the priesthood of Christ Jesus.
To that, Msgr. Elmer and his brothers have been faithful for many years. They have fought the good fight; they have kept the faith. In the years left to them, they deserve our gratitude.
Father Raymond J. De Souza celebrates the first anniversary of his ordination on July 20.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Raymond J. De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: A Lapsed Southern Baptist Catholic Patriarch DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:My grandfather was a child of the Second Vatican Council.
The problem is, he was born and died outside the faith, before the council.
One of the theological hallmarks of Vatican II was that while at the same time it confirmed the primacy of the Catholic Church and its unique role in the universal salvation epic that is mankind, it also recognized there were other religious traditions that, though outside complete communion with Rome, still adhered to certain divinely guided truths.
Vatican II encourages all Catholics to recognize the truth in these other religious traditions and to even celebrate intersections of agreement. Our family was blessed with just such a confluence.
Our grandfather, E.J. Taylor, not only looked like Jefferson Davis, but I think it's safe to assume that he shared much of the late president of the Confederacy's views on civics.
Our grandfather was a man of his time and a man of his region. Having been born and raised as a Southern farmer, he himself had a grandfather and a number of uncles who, though never having seen a slave in their lives, enthusiastically participated in the Civil War as proud members of a Benton County Arkansas regiment of the Confederate armed forces.
Our grandfather worked a small farm in the northern part of Arkansas almost all of his working life. It was very minimal when it came to everyday luxuries.
There was no electricity, and a springhouse built over a creek on the property was the closest they ever came to refrigeration. Instead of a tractor to pull various types of farm implements, our grandfather relied on Beck and Kate, his team of mules.
Now, I know what you're thinking. How does this relic-of-another-time-and-place Southern Baptist Arkansas farmer fit into the scheme of a big Irish Catholic family growing up in Southern California? Well for one, without his contribution to our familiar equation, namely our mother, there wouldn't be a big Irish Catholic family to grow up in Southern California. But this man, our grandfather, was so much more than just a distant progenitor who is owed some kind of automatic reverence for that role alone.
My older brothers and sisters and older cousins, via the luck of their birth draws, had our grandfather much longer than I did. He passed away when I was a first-grader.
But the impression he made on me lingers.
It's funny what we remember. I've never given up the image of sitting on my grandfather's lap, transfixed as he gracefully unfolded his pocket knife, cut off a chaw from the small brick of chewing tobacco he kept in his shirt pocket and slipped it into his elegant mouth. I remember watching him in his garage while he worked on some wood-carving project. I remember following him around his backyard — it seemed so big to me then — as he put every minute of his retirement to good use, grafting trees, practicing his horticultural craft and just plain keeping busy.
When farming got just too hard, our grandparents were brought out West by their grown children. We lived only a block away from the tiny little two-bedroom house our grandparents lived in. Luckily for me, preschool hadn't been invented and my parents didn't believe in kindergarten. So there I was, 5 years old, and the world was mine.
Well, sort of. At least I was an emancipated enough 5-year-old to be available to accompany my mother on trips over to grandpa's house. He was a man of incredible discipline with the kind of work ethic that could inspire.
Everybody towered over me then, but my grandfather, more than 6 feet tall, had an especially grand stature in my young eyes.
My slightly older eyes have seen something else in the retrospect of time, though. It now sees how this tall, dignified and noble Arkansas farmer, who rarely darkened the doors of the Southern Baptist tradition he was born unto and who, as far as I know, never even stepped foot in a Catholic church, played a crucial and integral role in my Catholic faith and the Catholic faith of my brothers and sisters.
If our mom, who converted to the faith, took to it so naturally, it might be because of the example of Christian charity that surrounded her in the form of her Southern Baptist parents E.J. and Rose Taylor.
These were not churchgoing folk, but at the same time they held fast to Christian templates of thought and action. No other member of our mother's family, not her parents, not her brothers and sisters, made a journey into the Church. But at the same time, these were some of the most Christian people my brothers and sisters ever met.
It was always kind of foreign to us, going over there for Christmas knowing they hadn't been to church, but the love and generosity they showed us was impossible to overlook. They were completely imperfect people who had that special internal spiritual compass that pointed toward the truth even if, for reasons known to God alone, they were not able to bring it fully forward in the way we, as Catholics, believe.
In some ways, our grandfather was Vatican II before there even was a Vatican II.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks directly to our beautiful Southern Baptist family when it says those who “seek God with a sincere heart and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience … may achieve eternal salvation” (No. 847).
What a comfort to us, the grandchildren and nieces and nephews of these wonderful people, to know that the Church's salvation road map detoured through the Ozark Mountains. Our lapsed Southern Baptist grandparents as well as our equally non-Catholic aunts and uncles were the definition of “sincere hearts” that the Church teaches through her Catechism and the Taylor family taught through their example.
Los Angeles writer Robert Brennan will continue this series in future issues.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert Brennan ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Say Amen, Somebody! DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:Growing up, I remember pausing from my channel surfing whenever I'd come across a televangelist leading a healing service.
Most times he'd be clutching a Bible and handkerchief in one hand and manning a microphone with the other. He'd be thanking Jesus as profusely as he was sweating and curing people of all sorts of illnesses and infirmities. The spectacles struck me as impressive theater. I never believed in the healings.
As I got older, I was fortunate to be blessed with good health. I rarely got sick and, when I did, it was nothing serious. Just a bad cold or an occasional flu. But several years ago — starting just after Sept. 11, 2001, to be exact — I developed a persistent cough. I was living in Queens, N.Y., and working in Manhattan. My doctor couldn't find anything wrong; X-rays of my lungs turned out to be negative. And yet I could not stop coughing.
I figured the condition might be due to my breathing in the smoky cloud emanating from Ground Zero. You might recall that it wafted over the city for weeks after Sept. 11. One of my sisters thought my respiratory problem pointed to a case of post-traumatic stress. Whatever the cause, I accepted that the cough was now a permanent part of me. Like a shadow.
That all changed this past Lent, when I attended a mission at a nearby church. The speakers were lay Catholic evangelists, a married couple who felt called by God about 11 years ago to give up their jobs to travel around the world and preach. Something the husband said about healing really resonated with me. The Mass, he said, is the perfect occasion to be healed. He then recited the Communion response as proof:
“Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the words and I shall be healed.”
I had said those words so many times without ever letting them sink into my soul. But that night, they made sense. When I receive the Eucharist, I receive Jesus. And Jesus heals.
I greatly admired the couple. Their lives are great witnesses to love, obedience and faith. They live simply, work hard to serve the Lord and rely solely on donations for their income. During the mission, they told anecdotes about their trips and described how people with serious illnesses and maladies in remote villages in Africa and other faraway places had been healed. I only half-believed them. Still rooted in my memory, thanks to the televangelists from my childhood, were the healings that I doubted.
The next liturgy I attended, after the mission ended, happened to be a healing Mass. It's a service my wife and I regularly attend during the first Friday of each month. I always went, hoping to be healed, but I never believed it was possible. But this time was different. This time, I believed. And after I received the Eucharist and knelt down to pray, I asked God to have mercy on me, a sinner.
And so he did. I actually felt something leave me (some of my unbelief, perhaps?). Whatever that was all about, my persistent cough disappeared that night.
I learned something important from the experience. Ailments and anxieties do follow us around like so many shadows. But where there is shadow, there is also light — and that light is God's love and mercy. I learned that if I don't believe, truly believe, then I remain in the quicksand of sin and unbelief, sinking away from grace and the healing power of the Holy Spirit.
I was also reaffirmed that there is only one true Physician. His soul-saving prescription? Faith.
Carlos Briceño writes from Seminole, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Carlos Briceņo ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: When Is a Tourist a Pilgrim? DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:It's been said that travel, at its best, is intensified living.
If that's true, then pilgrimage travel is intensified faith — in motion.
A pilgrimage has the power to change people, to deepen and strengthen their bond with God. The pilgrim leaves behind his provincial view of the world and immerses himself not only in prayer and contemplation but also in culture and history.
Souls, spirits, hearts and minds are rejuvenated: newly nourished and strengthened for the continuing pilgrimage toward heaven that is every Christian's life.
When you go on vacation, you see things you haven't seen before and do things you haven't done. Well and good, but your destinations and experiences are an end in themselves. You come home and can say, “Been there, done that.”
Meanwhile, on pilgrimage, the things you see and do are signposts to a destination further on up the road. Yes, you see new sights and do new things, but they're a means to something greater — your own spiritual progress toward God. They help you get where you ultimately want to go.
On vacation, you taste the local cuisine. On pilgrimage, you feed your soul and mind with food that can't be had anywhere else.
On vacation, you check off one sight and move on to the next. On pilgrimage, you go to daily Mass, pray in holy shrines and walk in the footsteps of saints from centuries past.
On vacation, you take photos and buy souvenirs to show others where you've been. On pilgrimage, you store memories of your interior experiences in your heart and revisit them in quiet prayer times the rest of your life.
Life-Size Reliquaries
Part of the power of a good pilgrimage lies in its particularity. You encounter this place, which was made holy by this saint. You walk the places he or she walked. You pray in the places he or she prayed.
Pilgrimage shrines are usually built on or near the tombs of the saints, or where they worked and lived out their witness to Christ. This reflects the ancient Christian belief that the saint's presence hallows, or makes holy, the place in which he or she lived or died. A segment of a saint's body, or something he or she owned or touched, becomes a relic. Through the relic we have contact with the holy man or woman.
The shrines or tombs of the saints are, by extension, relics of a sort. For, through these places, we have contact with the holy ones of God. A pilgrimage is contact with God through the particular and so is profoundly incarnational.
Just so, our respect for such unique places is a reflection of our awe over the incarnation of the Lord himself.
Think about it. Jesus became a man at a particular time, in a particular place. He had to do so in order to become truly one of us. Jesus worked his miracles one at a time: He healed this particular man, had mercy on this particular woman. He was born and died at a particular place on a particular day. By entering space and time, Christ sanctified each place and moment.
For this reason indulgences are usually attached to Church-approved pilgrimage sites. An indulgence is the remission of the temporal consequences of sin through the merits of Christ as granted by the Church, which is the repository and custodian of all the graces and mercy Christ has gained for us.
Just as Christ offers his grace to us in particular ways through the sacraments, so the Church offers us the fruits of his saving work, the “treasury of his merits,” in particular ways. Usually the indulgence granted is attached to offering certain prayers or performing certain acts of devotion. Again, the incarnational principle is at work: Christ's life and saving work are given to us through a particular time and place; his grace is offered to us through particular acts at particular times through the sacraments. So it is that the extraordinary privileges the Church offers through indulgences are given to us through particular places and particular saints.
‘Part of the power of a good pilgrimage lies in its particularity.’
Saints Alive
A pilgrimage is also about encountering the communion of saints and making the experience a reality in our lives. In the Apostles' Creed, we say, “I believe in the communion of saints.” But for many of us that thought might be just an abstraction, something we assent to intellectually without really entering into. On pilgrimage, in and through Christ, we have a real meeting with “those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith” and who are now with God in heaven. And our relationship to them becomes every bit as real as yours is with the parishioners who share a pew with you every Sunday.
The saints are not dead and gone — they are alive. They are alive to God in heaven and, by extension, to us here on earth. Because they are with God in heaven, they are in perfect communion with him. Remember, our communion with God is still imperfect. Our sins and shortcomings place obstacles in the way of our relationship with God. But the saints in heaven know no such obstacles. So they're able to pray in perfect accord with the will of God. That makes them perfect intercessors. And most of us, it would seem, can use all the intercession we can get.
Then too, because each saint lived out the Lord's call to holiness and discipleship in his or her own way, each one offers us a unique witness and example of how we can live out our faith. If St. Francis doesn't inspire you, maybe St. Ignatius of Loyola will. If St. Catherine of Siena doesn't get you fired up, look to St. Thé rèse of Lisieux.
Take the two of us writing this article, for example. We both have had profound experiences of the communion of saints while on pilgrimage. Our respective experiences vary widely in particulars but are closely similar in themes.
For me, Father Rob, my most memorable pilgrimage experience occurred when I went to Rome for studies in 1997. It was there — specifically, while visiting the cata-combs and the tombs of Sts. Peter and Paul — that I really started to “get” the communion of saints in a life-changing way. It was as if I could reach out, touch and actually feel the presence of these saints. I knew, in a way far beyond conceptual understanding, that they were interceding for me and for the whole Church. All at once, my prayers to various saints took on a new significance and immediacy. That sense continues in my prayer life to this day. In fact, you could say that my life has been one of intensified faith — in motion — ever since.
Yours can, too. Just plan to make your next vacation a pilgrimage.
Father Rob Johansen is associate pastor of St. Joseph's Church in
St. Joseph, Michigan. Mark Windsor is a Catholic writer and travel agent based in Plano, Texas.
----- EXCERPT: Make the most of your visits to sacred sites ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mark Windsor and Father Robert Johansen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, JUNE 6
Franciscan U. Presents
EWTN, 7 p.m.
Tonight's show, “Scripture Matters,” reveals Pope John Paul II's view of “the full sense” of Scripture and discusses how to understand the Bible better and to “read it from the heart of the Church.” Re-airs Tuesday, June 8, at 1 p.m. and Friday, June 11, at 3 a.m.
SUNDAY, JUNE 6
D-Day Marathon
History Channel, 11 a.m.-11 p.m.
On the 60th anniversary of D-Day, this slate of hour-long programs covers many facets of the Allied invasion of France. At 8 p.m., a new two-hour special, D-Day: The Lost Evidence, airs long-unseen footage from low-level reconnaissance flights over the beaches during the fighting.
SUNDAY, JUNE 6
D-Day: Reflections of Courage Discovery Channel, 8 p.m.
This new two-hour special portrays the invasion hour by hour through film footage, photos and interviews with D-Day veterans from both sides.
MON.-SAT., JUNE 7-12
Eucharistic Principles for the Spiritual Life
EWTN, 4:30 a.m. and 6 p.m., daily
Father Emmerich Vogt, director of the St. Jude Thaddeus Shrine in San Francisco, offers profound and practical ways to attain genuine repentance, conversion and a healthy spiritual life.
TUESDAY, JUNE 8
Wild West Tech
History Channel, 10 p.m.
The gold, silver and copper rushes in California, Nevada, Montana and Alaska in the 19th century necessitated major advances in mining equipment.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9
FDR's Secret War
History Channel, 10 a.m., 4 p.m.
Author Joseph Persico has sifted historical evidence about forceful steps by President Franklin D. Roosevelt toward Japan and Germany before U.S. entry into World War II.
THURSDAY, JUNE 10
Assisi in Silence
EWTN, 1 p.m.
This new hour-long special shows how, under secret orders from Pope Pius XII, the Diocese of Assisi, Italy, hid many Jews in monasteries and convents to save them from the Germans who occupied Italy in World War II.
FRIDAY, JUNE 11
World's Largest Aquarium
Travel Channel, 9 p.m.
Scientists brought more than 100,000 sea creatures from the world over to inhabit the new aquarium in the Science Park in Valencia, Spain.
SATURDAY, JUNE 12
Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown
ABC, 8 p.m.
You'll love the Peanuts brand of baseball in this half-hour animated special that first aired last August.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daniel J. Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Struck by an Artistic Commission for the Ages DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:Many know him as the young assistant director dubbed “Lightning Boy” by Mel Gibson during the filming of The Passion of the Christ.
But 24-year-old Jan (pronounced “Yon”) Michelini has accomplished more than just getting struck by bolts from the sky — twice — on the set of an instant cinematic classic. In fact, the young Italian national seemed destined for great things from the day he and his twin sister were baptized by Pope John Paul II. And that was in 1979, when they were only a month old. (They were the new Pope's first baptisms.)
The multitalented young Catholic squeezed in 20 minutes over the phone with Register features editor David Pearson while gearing up for the first exhibit of his sacred and secular paintings in Los Angeles, where he now lives — and while on his way to Mass with Father William Fulco, the Jesuit who translated the Passion script into Latin and Aramaic.
What's a good Catholic like you doing in a place like Hollywood?
[Laughs.] Telling them about Jesus Christ, reminding everyone that he loves them.
How do you do that?
It could be music, it could be movies. And now I've started this adventure with paintings. I am painting mostly faces of Jesus Christ and angels, and I'm trying to go back and paint all the steps that I went through to get to this point.
And that will tell a story about me and maybe give an example, telling people: “You've got to investigate for yourself, you've got to look for him, you've got to ask God to reveal himself to you.”
You're 24 and the world is your oyster. And yet you see yourself as a Catholic with something of an evangelization mission?
Yes, I think so. I think so. … I don't know if I have an evangelical mission exactly; I don't want to dramatize this. I know that I have this responsibility, so I am helping to give Jesus to others. I try to be a good Catholic. I go to Sunday Mass and I put my faith into every [aspect] of my life.
Have you always been a faithful Catholic?
I was raised Catholic; my family got all dressed up and went to Mass every Sunday. And I was happy about that. I didn't have anything against it. But I was not really understanding, and one day I came to the point where I just didn't want to go to Mass anymore. I was, like, 17 years old at the time. And for a couple of years after that, I didn't even want to hear about it. [Eventually] I began praying and asking God to reveal himself to me, to make this faith be really mine and to understand it. I was asking him, “Okay, give me some signs.”
Then I started to work in the movie business and, when I was 21, it happened that I went to shoot this movie with Richard Harris in Morocco. It's called The Apocalypse. I was the assistant director. And one day the director comes in and says, “Jan, one of the actors is not going to make it.” I asked him which role he was supposed to play and he said, “Don't worry. Just go to makeup and put on a beard and a wig.” I said, “What?” He said, “Go, go, go, go! I will show you just what to do.” So I went to makeup and they put a beard and a wig on me and then the director came in and said, “You're playing Jesus.” [Laughs.]
Now, this was not a big role in this movie, but it took 10 days of shooting. I didn't have any lines to say; it was all about movements and expressions of the face. And I really had to get into the seven visions of the Apocalypse. So I went to the desert, speaking with Richard Harris and reading the Bible with him, especially the Old Testament and the Apocalypse [Book of Revelation]. And for me it was sort of a coming back to the faith somehow. That [interior] dialogue started again. That investigation into God.
How long before the Gibson movie was this?
About six months before I started work on The Passion of the Christ. And that was another coincidence; even if I didn't believe in God I would have noticed it. I came back from this movie, The Apocalypse, and I was in my country house, I remember. I picked up a newspaper and I read that Mel Gibson was going to shoot a movie about Jesus Christ. I said to myself, “That's not possible — I just came back from something just like that!”
Mel Gibson was one of my favorite actors and directors. When I watched Braveheart I was crazy about it. I said, “Okay, now you see that, with movies, you can speak about good values; you can tell a story about a good man, about love, about sacrificing for others.” That was a great movie. It was maybe my favorite. So I said, “Okay, Jesus Christ by Mel Gibson. I love this. I want to work on it.”
So I called Rachel Griffiths, an assistant director. And I said, “Do you know who is working on this movie?” She said, “Don't tell me you didn't know that I was doing it.” I did not know that. So she said I could come over to talk about it and maybe work on it. So that's what happened. I took my car and I just drove there, and I got the job.
So Jesus Christ again. I was praying for signs and I was getting them. And then, you know, you probably heard that I got a couple of lightning strikes [on the set of The Passion].
Oh, yes. Thank God you weren't hurt. What do you think God was saying to you there?
He was saying, “Okay, now you've got to think about me seriously again.” So it became a moment when it was not just that I took the lightning strikes. I could see that it was part of a long process. I knew this because of the fact that it happened when I was on the set of The Passion of the Christ, when I was coming to understand the meaning of the Mass.
When the priest holds up the bread and the wine, that is the body and the blood of Christ. And until then, I had never really thought about it. My attention was never focused. They had told me a lot of times, but my attention was not focused. So in making this movie, I understood the meaning of the Eucharist. … It finally made sense to me.
What do you think God is calling you to do next?
I don't know, but I think I have some talents in art things. Film, painting, music — I play piano and compose. … It might be in movies, art, music — I think if that's what God wants me to do, he will give me the power to do it.
Jan Michelini's paintings are on permanent display at the Kolibri Gallery in Rolling Hills Estates, California. Also, the artist has launched a new website, JanMichelini.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jan Michelini ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:The Decalogue [Dekalog] (1988)
“What is the true meaning of life?
Why get up in the morning? Politics doesn't answer that.” — Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski
The Decalogue, Krzysztof Kieslowski's extraordinary, challenging collection of 10 one-hour films made for Polish television in the dying days of the Soviet Union, doesn't answer those questions, either. However, it poses them as hauntingly and seriously as any cinematic effort in the last 20 years.
“Everyone seems to accept the Ten Commandments as a kind of moral basis,” Kieslowski has said, “and everyone breaks them daily. Just the attempt to respect them is already a major achievement.”
The Decalogue is not easy to watch. Although the films explore moral questions, they do so in the context of disordered, sometimes dysfunctional lives of a modern, generally irreligious urban populace. Like much of the Old Testament, The Decalogue is a chronicle of human failure.
Yet unlike the Old Testament, The Decalogue chronicles human failure without clarifying the lines between right and wrong or even setting out to persuade its audience to live morally.
The 10 episodes are linked by a common setting, a Warsaw high-rise apartment complex where all the characters live (an early establishing shot perhaps suggests the Tower of Babel), and by the occasional overlapping of characters from one episode into another. The episodes are also linked by an enigmatic character, a silent observer, whose presence in nearly all the episodes suggests some symbolic function.
The episodes are also interconnected morally. Few deal straightforwardly with one and only one commandment; lying, adultery and other sins crop up repeatedly, for example, reflecting the principle that it is impossible to break only one commandment, that he who breaks one will soon be breaking another and another.
More surprisingly, some of the episodes can be said to reflect the corresponding commandment only in an accommodated sense. For example, Decalogue 3 deals not only with the Sabbath or the Lord's Day but also with Christmas, and Decalogue 7 involves kidnapping, which one wouldn't ordinarily think of as “theft.”
Behind these elliptical explorations of moral principles are larger questions about life, meaning and existence itself. Two women in two episodes engage in sexual immorality, but one does so claiming that it's possible to “love” two men at the same time while the other claims there is no such thing as “love” at all, only sex. The Decalogue is haunted by the atheistic ideology of Soviet communism, which reduced man to purely biological and scientific terms, yet Kieslowski is not content to view human experience through this narrow lens.
By now it will be abundantly clear that these short stories are far from morality plays. In a way, they are closer to parables — though we no longer find Jesus' parables confounding in the way his first hearers did. The achievement of The Decalogue, in part, is to throw the viewer off balance, to unsettle, to leave one pondering rather than convinced.
Kieslowski's musical collaborator, Zbigniew Preisner, has called The Decalogue “an attempt to return to the elementary values destroyed by communism.” Taken at face value, that might be an overstatement. But certainly The Decalogue is an attempt to take seriously moral and spiritual questions that communism had sought to pre-empt. And while Kieslowski doesn't pretend to explain the meaning of life, one episode points to another famous son of Poland — Pope John Paul II — as someone who might have the answers.
One of the 15 films on the Vatican film list in the values category, The Decalogue is available in a three-DVD set from Facets that includes an introduction by Roger Ebert.
Content advisory: Frank, sometimes disturbing exploration of disordered behavior, including a depiction of murder, extramarital and nonmarital affairs and encounters (no explicit nudity), disordered attractions and references to abortion. In Polish with subtitles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: `Now You Are Being Sent Forth' DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:What a difference a year makes — not to mention a change of locale.
In May 2003, Cardinal Francis Arinze gave an unambiguously pro-Gospel, pro-family commencement address at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. It so rankled some faculty members that they walked off and mounted a protest.
This May he did the same, only at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, Calif. — and his words inspired a standing ovation.
Speaking to 71 graduates and more than 1,400 guests on May 15, the Nigerian-born bishop, who serves as prefect for the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship, commended the school for the authentically Catholic formation it provides its students. “Parents send their children [here], and they are not afraid that the children will be damaged,” he said.
Here are additional excerpts from his lengthy address:
For four years you, dear graduating seniors, have been very much a part of the life and work of Thomas Aquinas College. … You have spent four years perfecting yourselves in the arts and the sciences, learning what past generations have written, said, done or made, and yourselves learning to contribute to the patrimony of humanity by also writing, saying, doing and making. And you have done all this and striven to develop your reasoning powers under the light of the Catholic faith. You believe in Jesus Christ — his Gospel, his Church that he founded to continue his work until the end of time.
Now you are being sent forth. Thomas Aquinas College is sending you into the wider world to bring the good news of what you have seen and heard to your brothers and sisters. It was our beloved savior Jesus Christ who said to Simon Peter in the boat on the Sea of Galilee: “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch” (Luke 5:4). In an analogous way, your alma mater is saying to you: “Go out into the world, outside this college, and share with humanity what you have been enriched with in this institution these four years.”
[Y]ou can do this [in] the family, your profession and in the direct sharing of your faith with others. You will be able to do all this as witnesses of Christ if personal prayer and sacramental practice are the climate in which you live. …
You will … witness to Christ by sharing your faith, not only by being good family members, not only by being efficient in your profession. … [T]here comes a time or place where you are called upon to share your faith directly, to speak to another expressly about what you believe in Jesus Christ, to invite another to share that faith, in short, to proclaim or announce Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ gives meaning and a sense of unity and direction to your life, if your faith in Christ is a pearl of great price for which you are ready to sell all you have and buy it, then is it not to be expected that you would like to share this good news with others?
You want to go to heaven alone? Why do you want to keep this good news all to yourself? Joy shared is joy multiplied.
Someone might be tempted to say: “But I am not a priest; I'm not a religious brother or sister. I am not even a catechist. Where have I the guarantee that I know enough of the Catholic faith for myself, before I presume to lecture others? Moreover, I fear that some people might laugh at me and call me names.”
Although you might not be a priest, a religious or a catechist, you are a baptized Catholic. And baptism is our radical call to evangelize. Every one of us is called to proclaim Christ according to our vocation and mission. Everybody cannot be Thomas Aquinas, everybody cannot be St. Bonaventure, but everyone can … evangelize. “Woe to me,” St. Paul says, “if I preach not the Gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16).
You are not required to obtain a doctorate in divinity … before you tell another person about Jesus Christ, who means so much to you. And you are not left without equipment. You have the Bible, the sacred tradition of the Church, the teaching authority of the Church. You have the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and those who do not have it, I suggest you sell your overcoat — you don't need any for the next six months — and buy one.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church has only 700 pages. If you read a page a day, you finish it in two years. And there is a mine of information, giving you the very best that can be put into our hands in our times. …
As for the fear of what people will say about you if you talk about Christ (and many Catholics tend to be shy), when will you courageously put that fear aside, seeing that Christ clearly declared: “Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38)? None of us wants Christ to disclaim us on the last day. Therefore, do not hesitate to gently persuade your lapsed Catholic friend to return to the sacraments.
To propose the faith to one who is free and willing, we do not impose; we only propose. [Do not hesitate] to join Catholic movements, associations, to be involved in diocesan or parish programs, or even to consider becoming a priest or a consecrated brother, religious, monk or nun. I understand that the 34th graduate of this great college was ordained a priest last year — Father Gary Selin, class of 1989 — for the Archdiocese of Denver, and I'm informed that one is being ordained today in New York and two more next week — those who have studied in this institution — and that a total of more than 30 have already been ordained, and those who are professed sisters are more than 20. This is good news. This is something to write Rome about! …
In life, you will meet people who in practice take little or no notice of God in their lives. They live as if God did not exist. They may not even take the trouble to positively deny the existence of God. They are too busy even to do that much. They just live secularistic lives. It is for you — not by argument, but by example and, when feasible, by words — to show them that life would lose its meaning and sense of direction without God.
Graduates of Thomas Aquinas College, launch out into the deep to evangelize the world for Christ.
If a Catholic graduate is to do all this — witness to Christ in the family, in professional life and in direct proclamation of Christ — then deep growth in prayer and in sacramental life are absolute requirements. We cannot do it all by our own power. Prayer is necessary because without life of union with God and without God's grace, we can do nothing useful for salvation. Christ has told us that he is the vine and we are the branches. We cannot have life unless we abide in him: “Without me you can do nothing” (John15:5). By prayer, as it were, we have link with God.
Prayer, personal prayer, is that which is particular to each person. Your prayer will be like you, my prayer will be like me. It can be without words. A child does not always speak to the mother. There are exchanges between mother and child — just looks, just presence — which are already eloquent.
Prayer can be based on a passage of Holy Scripture; it can be long or it can be short. It is best in front of the Blessed Sacrament, when possible. But you can also pray everywhere. …
In the name of Christ, put out into deep water. Go forth and bear fruit, fruit that will remain. God bless you.
To request a free CD of Cardinal Arinze's entire commencement address, go to www.thomasaquinas.edu.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Desperately Seeking Sanctity DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:WHAT IS THE CHURCH? CONFESSIONS OF A CRADLE CATHOLIC
by Regis Martin Emmaus Road, 2003 136 pages, $11.95 To order: (800) 398-5470 www.emmausroad.org
Why be a Catholic? Regis Martin's answer is simple: because I want to be holy. Because I am serious about sanctity. Because I positively “hunger and thirst” for righteousness.
Surely, however, Catholics do not have a corner on the holiness market. Vatican II even reminds us that the behavior of some who call themselves followers of Christ leads not to faith but to atheism.
But that is why we are Catholics, if we really mean it: because we really are followers of Christ. For Martin, a popular theology professor at Franciscan University of Steuben-ville, Ohio, the essence of the Church lies precisely in Christ. The Church is the sacrament of Christ.
She mediates him.
“[A]t the deepest level, the Church, like her analogue, the moon, radiates a light belonging wholly to Another, to Christ,” he writes. “One does not draw near to an institution whose structures magically emit light and life; one draws near to a Person, to Christ, whom the structures are meant to mediate. The sympathy or warmth I feel toward my neighbor in the pew we share does not compel my assent but rather the salvation offered to him and me through those very mediating structures we call the Church. I am committed to the Church … because she exists in virtue of him, because Christ graciously joined himself to her and because I am unlikely to ever find my way home to him apart from her. But it is not she, not the moon, whose light I see, but the light of Christ, which she exists to impart in the medium of this world.”
The Church is where, for centuries on end, men have been led to Christ. The Church is where the living Christ, who smashed sin and death, comes to me in the Eucharist. The Church is where sin is identified and where sin is shriven, for, as Martin puts it, “salvation is not a self-help enterprise.” And it is where everyone, “the chic and the geek,” can be one in Jesus Christ.
Martin's book is a helpful antidote to the Donatism found in some quarters, especially in the wake of the clergy sex scandals. Sacerdotal scandal ought not to be taken lightly, but neither must another's sins be a stumbling block that leaves me content in my own. Only a voracious desire for holiness — a gnawing and growling hunger that demands satiation — can reform and transform both me and the Church. Holiness is no hors d'oeuvre; it just can't be nibbled at.
A cross between the author's apologia pro vita sua and an exposition of ecclesiology thoroughly informed by the teaching of the Second Vatican Council document Lumen Gentium (Light of All Nations), this book treats many of the themes of a contemporary theology of the Church in a manner faithful to Vatican II's authentic call for renewal. For Lumen Gentium reminds us that holiness is everybody's business and, as Martin observes, unless we respond to that “tocsin of the conciliar event … [and] return in great numbers to the practice of penance, the Church in this country will slip unnoticed into a state of complete inanition.”
Martin's thesis is as simple as it is radical: We need first to fix on the essential — that the Church is where I encounter Christ, who makes me holy. That task is prerequisite to everything else, before we talk about any of the secondary issues of ecclesiology that have devoured so much time these past few decades. Until we reacquire a genuine craving for holiness, we will not get the perspectives straight while futilely spinning our wheels. That's the meat and potatoes of holiness. Everything else is dessert.
John M. Grondelski writes from Warsaw, Poland.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: John M. Grondelski ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:Honor Revoked
The protestors said Gonzales' support of the death penalty was contrary to the school's mission. They also asked that he not speak at the college's May 23 graduation.
College president Thomas Powell, however, said the degree was withdrawn because he had failed to seek proper approval to award it, the Baltimore Sun reported. Gonzales was still scheduled to speak at the graduation.
Legion School Grilled
Citing traffic, safety and environmental worries, several residents criticized the plan, the Journal News reported. They also raised concerns about the cost to taxpayers because the school would be tax exempt.
The Legion of Christ applied last year to build the $200 million school on a 165-acre site. The university would begin with fewer than 100 graduate students, the paper reported, adding undergraduates after a year or two.
They'll Go With the Flow
“As a Catholic university, we are committed to upholding Church teaching. However, the court's ruling makes it clear that all institutions are expected to abide by the new law effective May 17,” a Boston College spokesman told the Boston Globe.
A spokeswoman for Regis College said the college is still studying the implications of the new law but for now expected to comply with it.
Movement at St. Mary's
Eldred, 63, is retiring after seven years as president. During her tenure, the college's endowment rose from $65 million to $93 million, the Tribune reported. The school is planning for a new classroom and faculty building, and construction is already under way on a new student center and student apartments.
Eldred will be succeeded by Carol Mooney, a 1972 graduate of the college who is currently vice president and associate provost at the University of Notre Dame.
Hellwig Stepping Down
CARDINAL NEWMAN SOCIETY, May 21 — Monika Hellwig, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, has announced her retirement effective end of summer 2005.
She made the announcement at the association's annual meeting earlier this year, according to the association's spring newsletter. A search for a new president began May 22.
Cardinal Newman Society, an organization that seeks to restore Catholic identity in Catholic colleges and universities, noted that Hellwig was a vocal critic of the society and “in the 1990s, Hellwig led the ACCU's efforts to prevent full implementation of Ex Corde Ecclesiae, the apostolic constitution on Catholic higher education, in the United States.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Timeless Rewards for Late Parents DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:When Alice and Dave Paczkowski married in their late 30s, they joined the growing ranks of couples who are starting families later. The Minneapolis, Minn., couple had three sons, their third when Alice was 45. Now nearing 48 and 50, the couple say it was a miracle they were even able to have children.
“It was successful for my husband and me, but I know quite a few people in their 40s who were not successful,” Alice Paczkowski says.
At her age, Paczkowski's pregnancies were not easy. She had to deliver all three boys by Caesarean section.
But, she says, the risks are there at any age — and along with them come the rewards parents of any age discover.
In fact, if a woman is healthy, her ability to have a successful pregnancy in her 40s is just as good as at any other age, says Dr. Byron Calhoun, a specialist in maternal fetal medicine at Rockford Memorial Hospital in Rockford, Ill., and president of the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
“We're seeing more people at advanced ages having children,” he says. “But the bottom line is basically to be in good health, exercise, take extra vitamins, and you should not be smoking or drinking.”
Women over 35 face an increased risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and placental problems. As they age, they also face an increasing risk of chromosomal abnormalities in their children, primarily Down syndrome. At age 25, a woman has about a 1 in 1,250 chance of having a baby with Down syndrome; at age 35, a 1 in 400 chance; at age 40, a 1 in 100 chance; and at 45, a 1 in 30 chance. The rate of miscarriage is significantly higher in older women as well. Men over 50 can also contribute to chromosomal abnormalities in their children, including Down syndrome and schizophrenia.
The risk of fetal abnormalities never phased Cindy Wester, a 52-year-old mother of seven children in Chicago who had her last child at 43.
“When I was pregnant with Mary, I wasn't worried about it because I was raising a handicapped son and it can happen to anyone at any age,” she says.
Wester's adopted son, Bobby, was born perfectly normal but was severely abused by his biological parents and put in her foster care when she was 25 and single. Bobby is now 27 but is neurologically a 1-year-old and needs 24-hour care. When she met Jerry, he was 37 and mature enough to handle a handicapped child. They went on to have six more children, today ages 8 to 19. Jerry is now 60 and getting ready to retire, but the Westers don't worry about empty-nest syndrome or old age.
“I can't feel old because my friends are grandmothers and my husband's friends have grandkids and we still have an 8-year-old. It forces me to think young,” Wester says. “I try very hard to take care of myself physically and emotionally. And even though I'm older, I'm wiser.”
Some aren't so sure about that perspective.
“It would be fun to have a girl, but I would be physically unable to keep up with it,” Alice Paczkowski says. “I don't think it's fair to the child to keep on having kids because you can't give the energy or the patience when you're almost 50. We don't have any relatives to help us, and that makes it doubly exhausting. You don't get much of a break.”
The children don't seem to be complaining. Mary Beth Bonacci, for one, believes her parents' maturity played an important role in her formative years. Her dad was 40 and her mom 30 when she was born, their first, in 1962. It was unusual at that time for couples to just be starting their families at those ages, but Bonacci says their years weren't an issue for her or her siblings.
“My father was 48 when he had his last child, my sister,” says the high-achieving Denver-based writer and speaker. “We never felt remotely deprived. He was a great dad and he's a wonderful grandpa. And I think we must've kept him young, because he's 81 and still teaches school full time.”
“Your parents are just your parents,” Bonacci adds. “You don't think about whether they're older or younger. Looking back, I can see where there were benefits. There was a wisdom that came with some maturity because they were very grounded, very levelheaded. My mom had had a career, and I always wanted a career before I got married.”
While it was unusual in the Bonaccis' time to start a family in mid-life, the delay is becoming more common today. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the birth rates for women ages 35 to 39 and 40 to 44 more than doubled between 1978 and 2000. In 2002, more than 5,000 women between 45 and 49 gave birth, a rate double what it was 10 years ago. The number of children born to men ages 50 to 54 also jumped by 30%. What is not known is how many of these couples are using artificial methods to achieve pregnancy.
Willing to Sacrifice
Dr. Paul Spencer, who runs Aalfa Family Practice, a natural family planning medical clinic in White Bear Lake, Minn., says there is a temptation among older couples to want to take extraordinary methods to conceive.
“I encounter a lot of couples who are open to any method — everything from artificial insemination to donor eggs, donor sperm, to someone else carrying your donor sperm,” he says. “I would say that 50% or more, when they learn that they're abortive techniques or that they're against Church teaching, they immediately say ‘No.”
The other issue is medical. “With artificial techniques,” Spencer continues, “you don't know what the outcome will be. When you have test-tube babies, you also have test-tube diseases without the natural uterine filter. It's just another unknown that I throw into the mix.”
Spencer empathizes with couples who can't conceive. He and his wife, Judi, had their first child in their early 40s and were unable to conceive again. They began adopting children from Ukrainian and Romanian orphanages where Judi used to work.
The couple has five children now, the youngest of whom is 18 months, and they'd like to adopt a sixth child. Age is not an issue, 47-year-old Judi says, because she was always athletic and has a lot of energy.
“I was in those orphanages and lived with those kids, and there's always something calling out to me from them,” she says. “We've got room in our home and in our hearts, and there are a lot of things that I'm willing to sacrifice.”
Barb Ernster writes from Fridley, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barb Ernster ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of life -------- TITLE: Fish for Umbert DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:Facts of Life
Researchers at the University of Bristol, England, have found that the more fish pregnant women eat in the last trimester, the lower the rate of low birth weight in the baby. Fish is a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential for cell function.
Source: ABC News, May 13 Register illustration by Tim Rauch.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of life -------- TITLE: Thinking About Investing? First Check Scripture DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:Family Matters
I've been approached by a number of people with business and investment opportunities that promise both quick and sizable returns. How can I determine if these are good offers or investment scams?
My initial two-word response is: Use caution! It's easy for people to find themselves taken in by business or investment opportunities that seem too good to pass up. This shouldn't take us by surprise. The Catechism reminds us that “our thirst for another's goods is immense, infinite, never quenched” (No. 2536). This thirst for wealth makes us vulnerable to the many frauds that are promoted today.
One of the sad aspects of investment scams is that frequently those who can least afford to lose the money are the very ones who find themselves victims of a fraud. I just received a letter from one family who fell into this trap. Their financial situation had been tight for some time, with mounting credit card bills, when the wife heard about an opportunity for a home-based business that would allow her to stay home with their children while generating sufficient income to pay down their debts. In order to get started in the business, a $12,000 fee was required, plus equipment and training to the tune of another $4,000. Since the couple had no savings, these charges also went on credit cards.
You can guess what happened.
After taking the money from who knows how many people, the operators are nowhere to be found. Now this family, which already had credit-card problems, is in the position of having added thousands of dollars more to their debt.
How can you avoid making the costly mistake this family did? Follow some simple principles from sacred Scripture:
Don't fall into the trap of seeking quick riches. In Proverbs 13:11, we read, “Wealth hastily gotten will dwindle, but he who gathers little by little will increase it.”
Take time to adequately research any investment before you hand over funds. Proverbs 21:5 says, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to want.” In other words, if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. Of equal importance to solid research is seeking good counsel, especially from your spouse.
Don't borrow money to invest unless there is a guaranteed method of repayment. If you'll be relying on the value of the investment to pay back the debt, remember Proverbs 27:1, which says, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.”
By placing our trust in God's word and the teachings of the Church rather than our emotions and desires, we'll be equipped to make financial decisions that honor both God and our family. God love you!
Phil Lenahan is director of media and finance at Catholic Answers in El Cajon, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Phil Lenahan ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of life -------- TITLE: Like Father, Like Daughter DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:Prolife Profile
For Maria McFadden Maffucci, being a “daddy's girl” meant learning to read before kindergarten and devouring books by the Brontes and Jane Austen in grade school. Her “daddy” was James McFadden, who began his journalism career in the founding days of William F. Buckley Jr.'s National Review and went on to become a prolific pro-life writer and publisher.
His crowning achievement was printing President Ronald Reagan's “Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation” in his Human Life Review in 1983. This rallied the grass-roots pro-life movement and marked a change in the political discussion about abortion.
McFadden Maffucci grew up in a New York City apartment with her four siblings amid the rush of deadlines, dinner-time discussions of religion, literature and philosophy, and a kitchen table filled with materials of her father's next pro-life project. Her mother, Faith Abbott McFadden, a convert from Protestantism, is a writer in her own right. She is a coworker and confidante as her daughter carries on the family's business.
“Because of my parents, I loved the Catholic Church but also at a young age had my own beliefs and deep emotional feelings about Christ,” McFadden Maffucci says. “There was never a question about being pro-life; it was all part of what I believed. I witnessed the pro-life cause take over my dad's life. While it was hard on us children because he worked all the time and pretty much stopped taking vacations, I knew how committed he was and so admired his dedication.”
For her, it was a case of like father, like daughter. As her father was dying of cancer in 1998, McFadden Maffucci promised to carry on his publishing and pro-life work. The strong spirit and opinions of “JP,” as he is affectionately known within the family, still guide the work. McFadden Maffucci is editor of Human Life Review, which is published by the Human Life Foundation, which she heads as well. The foundation also raises funds for pro-life pregnancy centers as part of its “baby-saving” efforts.
“They have given us matching funds for more than 20 years; they have been a great help for us,” says Teresa Ware, executive director of Lifeline, a pregnancy center in Austin, Texas. “Many women say that they choose abortion because there is no one there to help them at their time of need. We try to address that need.”
McFadden Maffucci also publishes Catholic Eye, a newsletter founded by her father that offers a feisty commentary on issues in the Church and the world.
All this and a family, too. She and her husband, Robert Maffucci, live on the East Side of Manhattan with their three young children.
McFadden Maffucci says she struggles with the demands of work and family.
“I'm in a tricky position,” she admits. “On the one hand, I believe in the importance of a mother being home with her children. On the other, I am a working mother. Ideally, I'd be working part-time and having less responsibility, but my father's death forced me to accept responsibility for his work earlier than I had anticipated.”
Motherhood is especially time-consuming for McFadden Maffucci because her oldest child, who is 9 years old, was diagnosed a few years ago with developmental delays related to autism. He attends a special school and requires extra attention at home. Her two girls are Anna Clara, 7, and Grace Francesca, 3.
A quarterly, Human Life Review was founded by James McFadden in 1975 in response to the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision. Besides President Reagan, noted writers have included Malcolm Muggeridge, Clare Booth Luce, U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, Judge John Noonan and Nat Hentoff, one of the few pro-life atheists in America.
Like all small nonprofit organizations, the Human Life Foundation struggles financially. Many of the donors who signed on in the early days have retired or passed on, and McFadden Maffucci has little time to find new ones. Her sister, Christina McFadden, recently joined the foundation as development director to help organize the foundation's first Great Defender of Human Life dinner, a fund-raiser that honored Congressman Hyde. The second dinner is scheduled for the fall.
“We're hoping to honor one major voice in the pro-life movement each year,” McFadden Maffucci says.
“I am tremendously lucky,” she adds. “I have the privilege of working for this noble cause, and my mother and I feel fortunate that we could work through our grief over dad's death by immediately picking up where we left off here, as if dad is still a boss, but just not physically present. I hope when my children understand what I did while I was at work that they will be proud.”
Stephen Vincent is based in Wallingford, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Stephen Vincent ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of life -------- TITLE: Prolife Victories DATE: 06/06/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 2004 ----- BODY:Pro-Lifer Wins Settlement
CYBERCAST NEWS SERVICE, May 27 — DeKalb County, Ill., has settled a lawsuit brought by a woman who says she was denied a promotion because of her pro-life beliefs.
Faith Monciviaz said she was denied a promotion from part-time to full-time work in the DeKalb County Health Department because, during an interview, she said she would not discuss abortion with health-department clients.
According to Cybercast News Service, the American Center for Law and Justice filed the lawsuit on Monciviaz's behalf in May 2003, saying her rights to free speech and freedom of religion were violated.
The county has agreed to pay $40,000 to settle the claim without admitting liability in the case. As a result of the settlement, the law center said, the case would be dismissed.
Bishop Leads Demonstration
After a May 21 morning Mass and .3-mile “prayerful procession” to the abortion site, Bishop Moynihan led recitation of the rosary, the Press & Sun reported. Officials were informed of the bishop's itinerary and planned to provide a police escort to ensure safety while crossing the streets.
Bishop Moynihan has been leading pro-life demonstrations twice a year since he became leader of the diocese in 1995.
Pro-Life Groups Sue Boston
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 19 — Pro-life groups have filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Boston, saying the process to obtain permits to demonstrate at the Democratic National Convention this summer infringes on their First Amendment free-speech rights.
The Christian Defense Coalition, Operation Rescue Boston and Operation Rescue West said in their May 19 lawsuit that the process is too restrictive because groups must submit applications 14 days prior to any event, the wire service reported. The groups said they don't often learn of events they want to protest until a few days before the event.
Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, said the city is trying to “sanitize” the July 26-29 convention by restricting protesters.
House Rejects Abortion Proposal
LIFENEWS.COM, May 20 — The U.S. House of Representatives has voted against allowing abortions in military hospitals, which would be funded by taxpayer dollars.
Rep. Jim Kyun, R-Kan., led the opposition to the proposal and said it would “simply turn our military hospitals overseas into abortion clinics,” the pro-life news site reported.
Currently, the law prohibits the use of military facilities for abortions. The policy began as an executive order from the first President Bush in the early 1990s and became law in 1996. Prior to Congress passing the law, LifeNews.com reported, President Bill Clinton allowed abortions at military facilities from 1993-1996.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of life -------- TITLE: Ignore Ban on Partial-Birth Abortion DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:SAN FRANCISCO — On June 1, a federal district court in San Francisco said that doctors can continue the practice of partial-birth abortion, even though the U.S. Congress and President Bush have banned it.
During the trial, Dr. Maureen Paul, a Planned Parenthood doctor, was asked how partial-birth abortion is done once the body of a baby, but not the head, has been born.
“Well, there are two things you can do,” she said. “You can disarticulate at the neck, or what I prefer to do is to just reach in with my forceps and collapse the skull and bring the fetus out intact.” Partial-birth abortions are performed on 20- to 26-week-old children.
The ruling touches on a hot-button election-year issue. Catholic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., has voted to keep the practice legal.
The ruling was in a case challenging the federal partial-birth abortion ban signed by Bush last November. Congress passed the ban in October. Two previous versions of a ban were vetoed by President Bill Clinton.
“Once again a federal judge has declared that Roe v. Wade stands for the right to kill a child in the process of being born,” said Cathy Cleaver Ruse, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, regarding the California decision.
The Planned Parenthood of America v. Ashcroft ruling affects Planned Parenthood Federation of America sites and doctors throughout the country — an estimated 900 sites that perform about half of the country's abortions annually.
U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in San Francisco, a Clinton appointee, ruled that the ban imposed an “undue burden on a woman's right to choose an abortion.” She added that the question of whether the child feels pain during a partial-birth abortion is “irrelevant.”
Doctors had testified that babies feel pain, though some physicians denied it.
In late March, three federal courts began hearing challenges to the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003.
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America was the plaintiff in the case in California. Other challenges were issued by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Abortion Federation. Rulings are expected in Nevada and New York in June.
However the remaining courts rule, appeals to the Supreme Court are expected to be the ban's final determinant. Court watchers speculate that while the Nevada judge is likely to rule against the ban, New York is more of an open question.
A Nebraska ban was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000, a ruling the San Francisco judge used as a measure for her ruling this month.
Planned Parenthood claimed that the partial-birth abortion ban's reach would ban abortions at 12-15 weeks and, as the first restriction on legal abortion for America, would begin a series of rollbacks.
“Today's ruling is a landmark victory for medical privacy rights and women's health,” Planned Parenthood Federation president Gloria Feldt said in a statement. “The Ashcroft Department of Justice can no longer threaten Planned Parenthood doctors with the daunting specter of criminal prosecution for putting their patients first.”
Richard Garnett, a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, called the ruling “chilling.”
“It is noteworthy, and a bit unsettling, that in a decision condemning the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act for its ‘vague’ terms — terms like ‘living fetus,’ for example — the trial judge repeatedly employs obfuscating euphemisms like ‘fetal demise’ and ‘disarticulation,’” he said. “Although the judge chides Congress for not being specific enough about what is prohibited by the act, one can only conclude that the trial judge does not want her readers to know what it is that she claims is constitutionally protected.”
Peter Augustine Lawler, a professor of government at Berry College in Georgia and a member of the president's commission on bioethics, called the ruling a victory for “extremism.”
“Surely nobody really believes that the single word ‘liberty’ in the Fifth or Fourteenth Amendments prohibits the government from outlawing a practice that lots of reasonable Americans regard as indistinguishable from infanticide,” he said. “Our courts’ inability to tolerate any limits at all to pro-abortion individualism is telling evidence of which sort of extremism now really dominates our public policy.”
Candidates’ Stands
The two men running for president are at odds on the issue of partial-birth abortion.
The presumptive Democratic nominee, John Kerry, voted to keep partial-birth abortion legal.
“John Kerry voted to restrict late-term abortions but only where there was a clear exception for the life or health of women,” said Kerry campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter. “However, George Bush pushed through a different piece of legislation that failed to protect the health of women, and that is what the court struck down. When John Kerry is president, he will appoint judges that are committed to upholding the Constitution, not pursuing an ideological agenda.”
In a statement, President Bush's re-election campaign said: “Today's tragic ruling upholding partial-birth abortion shows why America needs judges who will interpret the law and not legislate from the bench. … John Kerry's judicial nominees would similarly frustrate the people's will and allow this grotesque procedure to continue.”
If the partial-birth-abortion ban is not in effect come November — which is likely — will it be an issue for Catholics at the polls? Maybe, but very possibly not.
“Most Catholics, even practicing ones, are still not aware of what partial-birth abortion is, much less that judges are trying to keep the practice going against the clear will of our elected lawmakers,” said Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, which spearheads voter-education drives aimed at Catholics.
“I have no doubt, however, that if practicing Catholics hear clear homilies about the partial-birth abortion procedure, the ban and the activist judges, they will draw the right conclusions,” Father Pavone said. “One of those right conclusions is that they need to elect a president and senators who know what our Founding Fathers meant when they said that Congress makes the laws, not the judges.”
Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor of www.nationalreview.com.
----- EXCERPT: JUDGE TO DOCTORS: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Seminarians Say, `We Want Celibacy' DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — At least 269 seminarians from eight U.S. seminaries have sent a letter to Bishop Wilton Gregory saying they support the Church's celibacy requirement.
The seminarians are responding to letter-writing campaigns by groups of priests that have generated media attention on the issue of priestly celibacy.
The first letter, signed by 163 priests of the Milwaukee Archdiocese, was addressed to Bishop Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and asked the nation's bishops to consider optional celibacy.
Two seminarians at St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul, Minn. — Franz Klein of LaCrosse, Wis., and Gary Kasel of St. Paul — began a petition campaign of their own, saying, “Speak for yourself.”
“Seminarians feel very strongly about this, and people don't know we feel this way. Many people are losing hope in the future of the Church,” Klein said. “But we said, ‘Hold on a minute. We're the future of the Church.’”
“We are writing today to affirm our support for Holy Mother Church's teaching on the place of celibacy in the priesthood,” their letter stated. It cited the Holy Father's 1992 apostolic exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis (I Will Give You Shepherds) on the total and exclusive manner in which Christ loved the Church as his spouse.
“We to whom the precious gift of divine grace to live as celibates has been given yearn with all our hearts to offer this celibacy up to the Lord with undivided hearts, at the service of his Church.” It concluded with the hope that they will soon be serving the faithful through the grace celibacy will give them.
“There is great support among seminarians for this teaching,” Klein said. “It has a lot to do with formations being consistent with Church teaching on Catholic doctrine and the sacraments, and our formation has been incredible and has only solidified my views.”
As Christ Loves
One of the three Milwaukee-area priests behind the letter that put the debate in motion said they don't doubt the value of celibacy.
“Our issue is the mandatory part,” argued Father Tom Suriano, pastor of St. Patrick Church in Whitewater, Wis. “We are running out of priests, which is the unintended consequence of the belief in protecting celibacy. How are we going to keep Eucharist going in a meaningful way in the future? Maintaining a viable, live Eucharistic community is more important than protecting celibacy.”
But priests in the Arlington, Va., Diocese who signed a letter to Bishop Gregory supporting the Church's requirement of celibacy felt otherwise.
“Common sense and historical experience indicate that reducing the demands of the priesthood will not increase vocations, because lessening sacrifice never inspires men to offer their lives to Christ,” they said. “In times of crisis, the wisdom and instinct of the Church have always been to respond with greater sacrifice, not less. What will inspire more vocations is celibacy lived well, not celibacy set aside.”
Leaders of Protestant churches also have worried about a shortage in their ranks of married clergy for the past several years. The nation's largest Jewish denomination also reports a shortage of rabbis.
Not Academic
Father William Baer, rector of St. John Vianney Seminary in St. Paul, noted that seminarians today understand that their celibacy, like Christ's, is a higher form of love, and embrace it.
“This is not an academic issue for seminarians, but a gift of the Church and the priesthood which has an enormous impact on their lives,” said Father Baer. “It gives you a relative freedom and availability. It enables you to be Christ to your parish in ways that no Protestant minister can. You understand through prayer and discernment the tremendous importance of holiness in the life of a priest, of being the icon of Christ.”
Father John DeCelles, one of the initiators of the Arlington, Va., letter, noted why.
“Men want to commit themselves to something. They want to make a sacrifice. Real men are attracted to that,” he said. “The priesthood in that way is like the Marines, the Special Forces. The right guys will throw themselves at that.”
Father Carter Griffin, who was ordained for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., May 29, made just as strong a point in his article “A New Breed of Seminarians” (Homiletic & Pastoral Review, October 2000).
“It is time for the seminarians themselves to weigh in,” he wrote. “My brothers and I have been surgeons, schoolteachers, health-care professionals … lawyers, architects and military officers. … We have seen the world from the inside and have made an unsentimental assessment of its condition. … To suggest that they are in retreat from the world is like suggesting that Patton's Third Army fled Sicily.”
New Petitions
While a lay-led effort in the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese supporting optional celibacy hoped to deliver 12,000 signatures to Bishop Gregory on Pentecost (May 30) and a similar initiative by the group FutureChurch was collecting signatures in time for a Corpus Christi petition June 13, Father DeCelles insisted: “People aren't going to change this with petitions. This is the will of God.”
The seminarians of St. John Vianney and their brothers across the country who fixed signatures to their petition embracing celibacy believe that.
“We hear so often from visiting priests that the tide has turned and that seminary life is so much better now than it was just 10 years ago,” seminarian Franz Klein said. “Some people may be stuck back in the ’60s or ’70s, and they may have more friction. But the guys in seminary here, and other places I know, have discovered the Catholic faith, have usually had conversion experiences and have the idea that they carry the responsibility to help Christ restore things to their rightful place. When the pendulum swings out far, it swings back equally.”
Sheila Gribben Liaugminas writes from Elmhurst, Illinois.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sheila G. Liaugminas ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Freedom And Peace DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — President Bush had no formal exchange prepared when he spoke to Pope John Paul II at the Vatican on June 4.
Instead, in unscripted words he passed on “greetings from our country, where you are respected, admired and greatly loved.”
But the Pope knew just what he was going to say. He spoke pointedly about the war in Iraq, reminding the president of the Holy See's interventions for peace before the U.S.-led invasion, and decrying recent “deplorable events.” Excerpts from both leaders’ speeches can be found on page 5.
The Pope also praised Bush for his pro-family policies, and It was noticed by many present that the Holy Father made a point of saying “God bless America” twice in his discourse — he was scripted only to say it once but is widely known to always make a point of saying it to American audiences.
He also sent his regards to former President Ronald Reagan, who died the next day, and his wife Nancy.
Tiber Motorcade. It was just after midday when a stream of vehicles and motorbikes swept up the Via della Conciliazione to the sound of whistles and clapping.
Staff, reporters, support vehicles and security made up a somewhat menacing presidential motorcade on its way to see John Paul.
“Such a military presence I've not seen before on a state visit,” one seasoned Vatican journalist revealed as he blended with a small crowd that had gathered.
A fair number had come to cheer their support for the president. Others were waiting in protest to voice their disgust.
“I'm here because I'm a Catholic,” said Father Patrick McMahon of the Carmelite Institute in Washington, D.C. “The Pope has spoken very clearly on this disastrous policy in Iraq, and Bush hasn't listened. He's created this hotbed of terrorism and violence and he's alienated the whole Islamic world.”
Such sentiments were echoed by many Italians who held two protests in Rome against Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq. But inside the walls of the apostolic palace, the mood quickly turned ceremonial, serene and gracious.
U.S. Archbishop James Harvey, head of the Papal Household, was the first Vatican official to welcome Bush.
After greeting the palace's staff, the president, dressed in a light-blue suit, was led with his wife and entourage through what seemed like endless magnificently frescoed corridors. Bush looked stern and collected but clearly tired having arrived in the Italian capital at 1 a.m.
Ready to greet him at the end of the first stage of corridors was the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano. Though he was a vocal critic of the Iraq war, differences were put aside as he welcomed the president with smiles and guided him to the apostolic library.
On glimpsing the Pope at the far end of the room, Bush's face lit up with delight as he walked briskly to greet the Holy Father. Both shook each other's hands firmly, the president bending down to speak to the Pope before taking his seat where he looked upon John Paul with respect and even awe.
The doors were then closed, during which time the two leaders held private talks.
Fifteen minutes elapsed before Bush emerged from the library and was escorted to the Clementine Hall, the traditional place where the Holy Father gives discourses to visitors.
The Pope followed shortly after, wheeled into the hall to the sound of enthusiastic clapping from the president's delegation.
Edward Pentin writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: Bush Honors the Pope - John Paul Prays for America ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Catholic Movie Poll DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE ‘PRO-CATHOLIC’ MOVIE?
NORTH HAVEN, Conn. — Shrek 2 and The Day After Tomorrow weren't the only big motion-picture events Memorial Day weekend. The Register and its sister publication, Faith & Family magazine, also used the weekend to launch a nationwide online Catholic movie poll.
“We couldn't, and won't try, to compete with the excellent lists of films that explore Catholic themes,” said the Register's executive editor, Tom Hoopes. “Instead, in a time when so many on-screen presentations of the Church are considered anti-Catholic, we want to compile a list of the most popular films that are ‘pro-Catholic’.”
To nominate films that celebrate Catholic life, go to www.ncregister. com and click on the banner at the top of the page before June 20. After that, visit again to vote on the final list. Results will be published in the Register and in Faith & Family in the fall. This new list will be unlike previous lists of notable motion pictures. In 1995, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of cinema, the Vatican compiled a list of 45 “great films.” The list, divided into the categories of religion, values and art, included such films as the silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc, The Bicycle Thief and Walt Disney's Fantasia.
The Register's poll will recognize movies that affirm Catholic life — its beliefs, lifestyle, morals and pious practices.
“It's a great idea,” said Louis Giovino, director of communications with the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. “The Passion of the Christ has demonstrated that when a movie on something specifically religious is done well, and in this case is a work of art, it's clear that there can be a huge, positive response to it. This poll is certainly legitimate. Every group comes out with a list of their favorite movies.”
“Unfortunately, nowadays, the choices are pretty slim that show the Church in a positive light,” Giovino added.
After polling people in the office Giovino said he was going to nominate The Passion of the Christ, The Song of Bernadette, and A Man for All Seasons.
Hoopes, who along with his wife, April, is also editorial director of Faith & Family, said other nominated movies show characters’ Catholic lives, even though faith questions aren't the central element of their stories: Return to Me, Henry V and The Rookie.
The online poll reads: “The Register is seeking nominations for the top movies that celebrate Catholic life. We don't seek to repeat the excellent lists of films that treat of Catholic themes. Rather, we want to recognize popular movies that show how attractive Catholic life can be. What movies make you proudest to be Catholic?”
Renowned Polish film director Krzysztof Zanussi, speaking before the First International Symposium on Cinema held recently at the Catholic University of Valencia, decried the polarization taking place between Catholics and the media.
“Catholics don't love the media and the media do not love Catholics,” said Zanussi, who received the prize for best director at the Cannes Film festival. “This has led the religious public to expect little from art, and this is terrible.”
Barbara Nicolosi, director of Act One: Writing for Hollywood and who is also a Register columnist, described one pleasure of The Passion of the Christ: It affirmed her family's spirituality.
“We are rosary people. We are people who really, really do Lent and for whom Passion week is the center of the year,” Nicolosi wrote on her Web log, Church of the Masses. “The images in The Passion of the Christ … are pictures we have seen in our mind's eye millions of times.”
The Register's poll was designed in cooperation with the nonprofit Catholic World Mission and is being promoted through the assistance of a variety of online entities such as Catholic.net, Catholic Exchange and Godspy.com.
Blogger Mia Storm was one of the first to vote. She also chose the films A Man for All Seasons, The Song of Bernadette and The Passion of the Christ.
“What's so attractive about ridicule, suffering and martyrdom?” Storm asked. “That is the essence of Catholicism — death to self for life to others. Properly understood, that is what should make us proud to be Catholic.”
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: America Loves Freedom - But What Is Freedom? DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:Cardinal Francis George was in Rome for Pentecost.
The archbishop of Chicago told Pope John Paul II on his ad limina visit that the Church in the United States now is in “great danger,” both from government interference and factions within the Church.
He spoke to Register correspondent Edward Pentin on May 29. Cardinal George said the Church must embrace the healing of the Eucharist and addressed the Communion-for-politicians controversy.
What is it like making an ad limina visit?
Every five years bishops come in pilgrimage to the tomb of Peter and Paul and talk to Peter's successor and those who help him. So we prepare for that spiritually. But the business part of it is prepared by a rather lengthy report — lengthy for Chicago because there's a lot of activity.
They bring up points from the report that they want to clarify or talk about. You can bring up any topic you like. Naturally, with the Holy Father himself you wait to see if he has any topics. You say a few words — he's a good listener so he listens more than he talks, as he always has done. He seemed aware; he has a synthesis of your report in front of him, he knows what you've written.
What topics did the Pope ask about?
He was personally interested this time in family life — he asked a lot of questions about that, and that's something that's always been close to him because of his early ministry in Poland when he was friends with couples when they got married and began their family. It's what informs his teaching on human sexuality and the theology of the body.
But he asks about how family life and society go because the family is the first church for many people and where they learn faith. If the family's not stable we have real problems, and that's what's happening. I told him 50% of marriages in the United States break up, and he was pretty preoccupied with that.
He also asked the secondary questions about vocations to the priesthood and to consecrated life. We could tell him contemplative vocations are fine; active apostolic religious life is suffering from a dearth of vocations. Chicago is doing very well for priests. It's not a flourishing of vocations but it's enough, and he was interested in all that. He's a very present man when you talk to him, he's present to you even in his weakened condition, and he is weak. Nonetheless he's present, he's thinking, he's reflecting, and occasionally he'll say something but usually he lets you talk.
Where do you stand on the issue of pro-abortion politicians receiving Communion?
For many years we were told, “The big problem with you bishops is that you can't get your act together and something that is national should have a common policy.” Well, we have a group working on a common policy, and I will discuss that with the other bishops and come up with a common policy. I hope in June; if we can't do that, then again it will be everyone for himself. That's not helpful in keeping the Church united.
What's clear about the scandal — and it is a scandal of politicians — not one of them has said, “I don't accept what the Church teaches on the morality of abortion,” but they say it is their personal faith, and so say they're faithful Catholics, they're not rejecting Church teaching, but then they ignore Evangelium Vitae's [the 1995 encyclical The Gospel of Life] injunction that a Catholic politician, of course, accepts the law as it is but then works to change it if it's against the common good.
And abortion is not just a matter of Catholic doctrine, it's a matter of the common good. We can't impose Catholic doctrine on a particular fast on Friday or something during Lent. We can, however, say it's against the common good to have a whole class of human beings outside the protection of law. … This is a great scandal and the politicians should be working to limit abortion.
It's difficult to do that in the United States, unlike Europe, where there are abortion laws, and therefore we can say, let's say 20 weeks, let's say 14 weeks to handle a tragedy of some sort. It's still wrong, but at least you can talk about limits.
In the United States we got this as a dictate of the courts and therefore it's a constitutional right. Well, you don't limit rights, and so our rhetoric does us no good, and our democratic system has failed miserably in this and in other things as judges establish their own whims as the law of the land and there's no way to recall them, usually, so it's a very faulty democratic system.
But in this case you have politicians saying it's a constitutional right, therefore we have to defend it, and that is a scandal, but it's not a scandal easily resolved, and what we can say is this is an inadequate response. What we haven't yet said is, therefore, that there should be sanctions.
And the document from the Holy See on the participation of Catholics in political life does not envisage sanctions. The Code of Canon Law says you can refuse Communion to a manifest public sinner. We have never yet said — but we might — that someone can be called a manifest public sinner because of the way they vote. So if we say that, it's a new step in pastoral practice, and we ought to say it together. I can see an argument for saying it, I can see an argument for hesitating to say it, but at this point I think the bishops should try to say whatever they're going to say together.
Are you concerned that the issue will become over-politicized?
In a political campaign, yes, everything gets politicized. And the problem is the demands of the faith — which are never absorbed in politics — become absorbed in politics because that's how the media report them, as political moves rather than coming from our concern for the nature of the Eucharist and communion with the Church when you receive it.
Do you think, though, that the main point is not being adequately conveyed, that it's not just about pro-abortion politicians receiving Communion but a general sense in society that one can do what one likes regardless of consequences to one's neighbor?
Lots of people would say you can't do what you like if it hurts your neighbor. The problem is to see the unborn child as a neighbor. They play off a woman's freedom. Freedom is our great value.
Americans kill for freedom. We do it in every generation, and so a woman's independence and freedom is more important than the life of a child. That's the American value system.
Do you think it permeates all through American society?
Yes, so therefore it isn't just abortion, it's all kinds of other situations, but I would not say that Americans would say you can do whatever you like even if someone else is hurt. Generally they don't say that; they got abortion in because they say it's not human.
Now they can't say that so well, obviously, since scientifically it's indefensible, and that's where the crisis has come up. But the difficulty is what you cannot do, to use your faith as a way of creating public policy — faith is always private now in a secularized society. Public life has to be secular and therefore individualistic.
Are you concerned, though, that if the bishops do decide to unanimously impose sanctions, it could lead to a situation where anyone who dissents from any Church teaching cannot be considered a full member of the Church?
Well, abortion is a particularly important issue. It's unique, it's life and death, it's intrinsically immoral. It's not the same as “can there be just wars?” or that “the state still has the right in theory to execute someone who's a threat to safety, although we should do it in another way now as we have the means to put them into prison.”
Other issues, even life issues, are not as absolute as abortion, so it is a unique case. But you know, the reception of Communion is in the hands of the individual who examines his life and then says, “I am free enough of grave sin that I can go to the Lord as a penitent sinner and ask for the forgiveness of my sins and be in more perfect communion with God and with Christ's body, the Church.” And we leave that up to the individual, usually.
What we're talking about here is a public sin, and that's where the rub comes in. If someone is a private sinner, we assume they went to confession, and they are now ready to receive Communion. Otherwise you put the priest — and that is a concern of mine — in an impossible situation.
You put the burden on the priest who's giving Communion, and he might or might not recognize the individual who comes forward — there might be someone with a camera taking a picture and that further exacerbates it. The point of all of this is to weaken episcopal authority, really. The secularists want the Church to be in uproar and want, therefore, episcopal authority to be shown to be in disarray because that's the principle of unity in the Church.
If that goes, we're just a collection of individuals — we're Protestants with a few Catholic customs. So that is where people on all sides play into a secularist agenda in this conversation, but sometimes unwittingly.
Edward Pentin writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Catholic Student's Modesty Impresses Nordstrom DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:BELLEVUE, Wash. — Ella Gunderson, an 11-year-old Catholic school student, has started what could become a new fashion — making clothing retailers take notice that girls and young women can wear styles that are fashionable without sacrificing their modesty.
Ella was one of 37 girls between ages 10 and 16 who participated in what was billed as the first annual Pure Fashion Show in the Seattle area May 23 at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue Wintergarden.
Sponsored by the Challenge Club of Greater Seattle, the show's message was that there can be fashion without compromise. Ella's mother, Pam Gunderson, is president of the Seattle-area group, part of an international network of clubs and camps for Catholic girls.
Although there have been Pure Fashion shows by Challenge groups in other parts of the country, this one attracted national media attention because of a letter Ella wrote to the Nordstrom clothing company — and the response she received. Ella and her mother appeared on national television-news programs within days.
Ella's letter said she had tried shopping at Nordstrom but that all the jeans she tried on “ride way under my hips, and the next size up is too big and falls down.”
“They are also way too tight, and as I get older, show everything every time I move,” her letter continued. “I see all of these girls who walk around with pants that show their bellybutton and underwear. Even at my age, I know that is not modest.”
Her letter goes on to say that the store's shirts for girls are too far over the bellybutton and that with clothing from the store it seems she would walk around showing half her body.
The letter says clerks at Nordstrom suggested there is only one look. “If this is true,” Ella's letter says, girls are supposed to “walk around half naked. I think you should change that.”
‘You're Right’
Ella received two letters in response. One was from Kris Allan, store manager of the retailer's Bellevue location, who wrote: “I think you are absolutely right. There should not be just one look for everyone. This look is not particularly a modest one and there should be choices for everyone. I am sorry that you were unable to find anything while in our store. I am sharing your letter with Kianna Mitchell, the Brass Plum manager, so she can coach her team that everyone does not want to look like a fashion-diva model.”
Brass Plum is a line of clothing for teen-aged and preteen girls.
The other letter came from Loretta Soffe, a company vice president and corporate merchandising manager, whose comments included an assurance for Ella.
“We will do our best to educate our salespeople as to the many different looks that are available,” the letter said. “So, the next time you come into Nordstrom, we can find you something in the store that you like.”
Ella, a fifth-grader at Holy Family Catholic School in nearby Kirkland, said she didn't expect a reply — certainly not so much media attention.
“We can be stylish and look really nice but still be modest at the same time,” she noted.
Her mother noted that the motto of the Challenge Club is: “Challenge yourself, challenge others, challenge the world!”
“I believe Ella did all of these,” she said. “It took a little girl to write a letter proclaiming the obvious.”
Pam Gunderson said families involved with the show prayed “a novena to Our Lady” prior to the fashion show, which attracted a capacity audience of 250.
‘Earn Respect’
The show's featured speaker was Coleen Kelly Mast, an Illinois-based chastity author who co-hosts the radio advice program “The Doctor Is In,” produced by Catholic Answers.
“We earn respect by becoming virtuous,” Mast said in her talk. “Girls and women who want respect choose to be beautiful on the inside. Beauty on the inside is what shines through.”
Ella's father, Bob Gunderson, runs his own computer-software and consulting business. Of the attention Ella has generated, he said he and his family are “trying to be as open as possible to the Holy Spirit, who is definitely in control of this whole thing.”
“Obviously Pam and I have a responsibility to shield Ella from inappropriate media attention, but we are taking this one step at a time,” he said.
Deniz Anders, spokeswoman for Nordstrom, said the company believes it did have modest fashionable clothing for girls when Ella shopped at the store's Bellevue location but that Ella was not directed to those items. Anders said Nordstrom has in the past received other customer letters about difficulty in finding fashionable modest clothing for girls, but she did not know if any of those letters came from minors.
Annie Sparrow is a trend-watcher who owns a Seattle women's boutique called Tulip. Sparrow said young women have been asking for less-revealing clothes and that retailers have been relaying that message to the fashion industry, which has begun to listen.
“We've been challenged,” Sparrow said, “especially with jeans being so low.”
Armando Machado writes from Mount Vernon, Washington.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Armando Machado ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 30 — Jim Caviezel, the actor who played Jesus in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, has turned down offers to do a series of television commercials because he believes they would conflict with his Catholic beliefs.
One of the offers, the total of which would earn the 35-year-old approximately $75 million, was for a T-shirt company's line of “Heavenly” apparel, the Associated Press reported.
“I think if I had given way on just one scheme, I would have been tempted to do more,” Caviezel said. “It would have been the easiest thing in the world to make that kind of money quickly. That sum would secure your future, but I would never be able to forgive myself.”
“I could see the humor in it,” he said of the “Heavenly” T-shirt offer, “but I think I would have upset a lot of people who got something special from the film.”
Blacks Prove Unique Allies Against Same-Sex Marriage
The group of leaders also warned city and state politicians not to come to them for support unless they oppose same-sex unions, the Chicago Tribune reported. The newspaper noted that historically blacks’ political activity was more involved in economic issues rather than social issues. That, however, appears to be changing.
A survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life last fall showed that 62% of blacks have an unfavorable opinion of homosexuality, the paper noted, which was close to the 69% of white evangelicals who hold that view.
There is much disagreement among blacks on the issue, however. But Rev. Jesse Jackson said recently that comparisons between the civil-rights movement and homosexual “rights” are “a stretch” because “gays were never called three-fifths human in the Constitution.”
Poll: Catholic Voters Want Bishops Out of Politics
Two-thirds of those sur veyed in the May 27 Quinnipiac University poll disapproved of pressure by bishops, specifically that given to Sen. John Kerr y, D-Mass., the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported. Also, 87% said they wouldn't let the bishops’ stance affect their voting in the November election.
The poll surveyed 1,160 registered voters, including 307 Catholic voters. The margin of error for the Catholic voter sample was plus or minus 5.6 percentage points.
Any politician's religious beliefs, regardless of party or issue, according to two-thirds of Catholics and non-Catholics polled, should “be a private matter, not subject to public discussion.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Coming to Boston DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:BOSTON — The Democratic National Convention will be held in Boston in July, and Massachusetts almost surely will be in Sen. John Kerry's hands come Election Day.
But that didn't stop the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Ed Gillespie, from coming to Boston to speak to Catholic supporters of President Bush. The chairman spoke to a group of approximately 100 Catholic grass-roots activists May 26.
In the wake of the court-ordered legalization of same-sex “marriage” in Massachusetts, the activists see support for Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, as defeating the causes they cherish. Instead, they are working for President Bush's re-election.
The activists — including members of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, the Knights of Columbus, the local chapter of Concerned Women for America and groups called Faithful Voice and the Parents’ Rights Coalition — organized the event to help the Republican Party communicate its message to Catholic voters in Massachusetts and neighboring states. Gillespie later traveled to New Hampshire to meet privately with about 10 Catholic activists there who will be part of the GOP's effort to win the state.
Polling conducted during the primary season put Kerry ahead of Bush by 29 percentage points in Massachusetts. The state is roughly 49% Catholic, and Kerry is a Catholic who has used his vote in the Senate against attempts to restrict abortion and who has expressed support for some form of legally-sanctioned unions for same-sex couples.
“John Kerry may be Catholic, but his voting record disagrees with the views of most Catholics,” said Gillespie in an interview after the Boston meeting. Gillespie, who is Catholic, pointed out that the Republican Party platform “says that marriage is between one man and one woman.” He told attendees at the meeting that “we must do everything we can to protect marriage, including amending the Constitution.”
“There is a fine line between letting people live their lives as they choose and respecting their privacy and forcing others to embrace their choices through government sanction,” Gillespie said in his speech. “And I have to say, those who say I must turn my back on the tenets of my faith in order to be accepted by them are the ones being intolerant, and it's nothing less than religious bigotry.”
“The economy, jobs and these issues are the ones most important to Catholics, just as they are to other Americans,” Gillespie said in the interview. “But they also care about gay marriage, especially when judges dictate same-sex marriage, and issues of life, promoting a culture of life. Kerry is against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act and the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. He made time to come back [from campaigning] to vote on these two bills and to speak at the pro-abortion rally [recently held in Washington]. But he had no time to vote on the energy bill or the Medicare drug bill. It's telling to see what his priorities are. He was one of only 14 senators to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act.”
The Defense of Marriage Act, signed by President Clinton in 1996, protects states from having to recognize same-sex “marriages” performed in other states — assuming the courts do not invalidate it.
Beyond Massachusetts
In addition to Gillespie's speech, “we had a great few hours of creating fellowship and planning strategy to make sure President Bush is re-elected,” said Carol McKinley, one of the principal organizers of the event.
Her group, Faithful Voice, became active three years ago in response to those who want to “change the teachings of the Church, make everything democratic and sever the American Church from the Pope,” said the mother and small-business owner from Pembroke, a Boston suburb.
McKinley said though it might seem difficult to win Massachusetts for Bush against a home-state opponent, “I don't think it's as hard to do as people think. … We are recruiting pro-family candidates for the state Legislature and Congress.”
“We are going to work in other states as well,” said Bill Hobbib, a local software executive who works with the pro-traditional-marriage group Coalition for Marriage and who helped organize the event. “In Massachusetts, there are candidates who are challenging longtime Democratic incumbents who voted against Catholic teaching on marriage.”
“People are really looking at John Kerry's record and are really dismayed,” Gillespie said.
But some Catholics, particularly those concerned with the right to life, are not happy about recent developments in the Republican Party, either.
Asked how he could explain to faithful Catholic voters the strong support of pro-abortion Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., against pro-life, pro-family Rep. Pat Toomey in that state's senatorial primary — Specter barely won — Gillespie replied, “We have to expand our majority in the U.S. Senate to confirm our president's judges. I'm a solid conservative myself and a devout Catholic and I supported Arlen Specter. We have a policy of supporting our incumbents for re-election.”
A Look at Issues
Republican outreach to Catholic voters is nothing new. Since the last presidential campaign, Deal Hudson, editor of Crisis magazine, has been in the midst of such voter relations.
“I offer my advice on how to reach Catholic voters with the Republican message,” said Hudson, the volunteer chairman of the Republican National Committee's Catholic outreach program. The best way to reach Catholic voters, he said, “is to have policies in line with Catholic teaching.”
He said Catholics should be reached just like any other demographic — through “a combination of events, methods of communication such as the event Ed Gillespie held.”
In addition to the economy, jobs, and life and marriage issues, Hudson said, it is important for Bush to communicate his position on the Iraq war to Catholics.
“They've heard criticism from the Vatican on Iraq, so they need to hear the president's message,” he said.
Hudson said the Republican Party has been successful in getting more Catholic votes recently while promoting life and family issues.
A recent poll conducted by Zogby International showed Kerry getting only 20% support among the country's 51 million Catholics on issues where he opposes Church teaching.
“Look what happened in 2000,” Hudson said. “Bush got 10 percentage points more of Catholics than [Bob] Dole did [in 1996]. That's 3 million votes. We won the Catholic vote in Pennsylvania despite losing the state. We have a message going out to Mass-going Catholics.”
Joseph A. D'Agostino writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: Republicans are Reaching out to Catholics, too ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph A. D'Agostino ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:Where Is America's Collective Soul?
America is “forgetting its spiritual roots,” the Pope said, and the road there was paved by “a widespread spirit of agnosticism and relativism,” the Chicago Tribune quoted the Holy Father as saying.
Bishop Edwin Conway, vicar general for the Archdiocese of Chicago, said he often wonders about America's collective soul. “Where is it?” he asked. “It's kind of dormant.”
Many agree with John Paul's assessment, according to the newspaper, including the Illinois poet laureate, an author of “unorthodox spirituality,” a Bob Jones University spokesman and a Jewish rabbi.
Such remarks on “Americanism” by a Church leader are nothing new, the Tribune noted. In 1899, Pope Leo XIII said some in America think the Church should “shape her teachings more in accord with the spirit of the age and relax some of her ancient severity.”
Vatican to Beatify Nun Whose Work Inspired
REUTERS, May 30 — Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich, a 19thcentur y German nun, is set to be beatified by Pope John Paul II on Oct. 3.
Bishop Reinhard Lettmann of Muenster, Germany, announced the beatification date in late May in his diocese, where Sister Emmerich lived.
The bishop noted how the nun had strengthened others in their faith despite her own frailty, a theme close to the 84-year-old Pope, Reuters reported.
The nun will be honored for her virtuous life, not for her book that recounted the visions that inspired Mel Gibson in his film The Passion of the Christ, according to the wire ser vice. The book, The Dolorus Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, recounted Jesus’ passion and death in details not found in the Gospels.
The Vatican halted an attempt to beatify Sister Emmerich in 1928 out of concern a German poet who wrote down her visions had exaggerated her account.
However, the case was reopened in 1973 and approved last July.
Torture Is Against Human Dignity, Pope Says
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 27 — Torture is an intolerable affront to human dignity, according to Pope John Paul II, who also expressed his grief on May 27 that reports of abuses “constantly arrive from all continents.”
The Holy Father was speaking to seven new ambassadors to the Holy See and did not mention any specific cases in any specific countries, the Associated Press reported. The ambassadors were from Suriname, Sir Lanka, Mali, Yemen, Zambia, Nigeria and Tunisia.
News comes in all the time “concerning the human-rights situation, showing how men, women and children are tortured and how their dignity is profoundly offended, contrar y to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” John Paul noted. “In this way, all humanity suffers injur y and contempt.”
“As all human beings are our brothers,” the Pope said, “we cannot remain quiet in the face of these intolerable abuses.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: 'The United States Honors This Son of Poland' DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II and President George W. Bush met June 4 at the Vatican. The following is excerpted from their remarks.
Pope John Paul II: Our thoughts turn today to the 20 years in which the Holy See and the United States have enjoyed formal diplomatic relations, established in 1984 under President Ronald Reagan. These relations have promoted mutual understanding on great issues of common interest and practical cooperation in different areas. I send my regards to President Reagan and to Mrs. Reagan, who is so attentive to him in his illness.
I would also like to express my esteem for all the representatives of the United States to the Holy See, together with my appreciation for the competence, sensitivity and great commitment with which they have favored the development of our relations. Mr. President, your visit to Rome takes place at a moment of great concern for the continuing situation of grave unrest in the Middle East, both in Iraq and in the Holy Land.
You are very familiar with the unequivocal position of the Holy See in this regard, expressed in numerous documents, through direct and indirect contacts, and in the many diplomatic efforts that have been made since you visited me, first at Castel Gandolfo on July 23, 2001, and again in this Apostolic Palace on May 28, 2002.
It is the evident desire of everyone that this situation now be normalized as quickly as possible with the active participation of the international community and, in particular, the United Nations, in order to ensure a speedy return of Iraq's sovereignty, in conditions of security for all its people. The recent appointment of a head of state in Iraq and the formation of an interim Iraqi government are encouraging steps toward the attainment of this goal.
May a similar hope for peace also be rekindled in the Holy Land and lead to new negotiations, dictated by a sincere and determined commitment to dialogue, between the government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
The threat of international terrorism remains a source of constant concern. It has seriously affected normal and peaceful relations between states and peoples since the tragic date of Sept. 11, 2001, which I have not hesitated to call “a dark day in the history of humanity.” In the past few weeks other deplorable events have come to light that have troubled the civic and religious conscience of all and made more difficult a serene and resolute commitment to shared human values: In the absence of such a commitment, neither war nor terrorism will ever be overcome.
May God grant strength and success to all those who do not cease to hope and work for understanding between peoples, in respect for the security and rights of all nations and of every man and woman.
At the same time, Mr. President, I take this opportunity to acknowledge the great commitment of your government and of your nation's numerous humanitarian agencies, particularly those of Catholic inspiration, to overcoming the increasingly intolerable conditions in various African countries, where the suffering caused by fratricidal conflicts, pandemic illnesses and a degrading poverty can no longer be overlooked. I also continue to follow with great appreciation your commitment to the promotion of moral values in American society, particularly with regard to respect for life and the family.
A fuller and deeper understanding between the United States of America and Europe will surely play a decisive role in resolving the great problems I have mentioned, as well as so many others confronted by humanity today. May your visit, Mr. President, give new and powerful impetus to such cooperation.
Mr. President, as you carry out your lofty mission of service to your nation and to world peace, I assure you of my prayers and cordially invoke upon you God's blessings of wisdom, strength and peace.
May God bestow peace and freedom upon all mankind!
President Bush: Your Holiness, thank you very much for receiving Laura and me, and our delegation. I bring greetings from our country, where you are respected, admired and greatly loved.
I also bring a message from my government that says to you, sir, we will work for human liberty and human dignity, in order to spread peace and compassion; that we appreciate the strong symbol of freedom you have stood for, and we recognize the power of freedom to change societies and to change the world.
And so, sir, we're honored to be here. Perhaps the best way I can express my country's gratitude to you, and our respect to you, is to present to you the Medal of Freedom from America. And if you might allow, I'd like to read the citation attached to that honor:
“A devoted servant of God, His Holiness Pope John Paul II has championed the cause of the poor, the weak, the hungry and the outcast.
“He has defended the unique dignity of every life and the goodness of all life. Through his faith and moral conviction, he has given courage to others to be not afraid in overcoming injustice and oppression. His principled stand for peace and freedom has inspired millions and helped to topple communism and tyranny. The United States honors this son of Poland who became the Bishop of Rome and a hero of our time.”
And so, on behalf of the American people, Your Holiness, I would be honored if you would accept our Medal of Freedom.
Pope John Paul II: I am very grateful, Mr. President, for this thoughtful gesture. May the desire for freedom, peace, a more humane world symbolized by this medal inspire men and women of good will in every time and place.
God bless America!
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Suffering Can Be a Path to Spiritual Enrichment DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:Register Summary
Pope John Paul II met with 13,000 pilgrims in St. Peter's Square during his general audience June 2. He offered his reflections on Psalm 41, which Jesus quoted during the Last Supper when he was about to be betrayed.
Psalm 41, he said, is the prayer of a man who is lonely and sick. His enemies delight in his misfortune. “Their words are harsh and strike at the very heart of the psalmist, who experiences a malice that knows no mercy,” the Holy Father noted. “This is exactly what many poor and humble people experience, people who are condemned to being alone and feeling as though they are a burden to the members of their family.” Furthermore, even the psalmist's lifelong friend has betrayed him.
Despite the note of sadness in the psalm, there is an undercurrent of profound spiritual joy. “Suffering in itself can conceal a secret value and become a path of purification, interior freedom and enrichment for the soul,” the Pope said. “It is an invitation to overcome our superficiality, vanity, egoism and sin, and to entrust ourselves more deeply to God and to his saving will.”
St. Ambrose, John Paul pointed out, interpreted Psalm 41 as a prophetic ray of light and hope for us all, and as an invitation to meditate on the passion of Christ, who saves us from our sins and leads us to resurrection with him.
One reason that motivates us to understand and to love Psalm 41, which we have just heard, is the fact that Jesus himself quoted it: “I am not speaking of all of you. I know those whom I have chosen. But so that the Scripture might be fulfilled, ‘The one who ate my food has raised his heel against me’” (John 13:18).
It is the last night of his life on earth, and Jesus, the host, is in the upper room, about to offer a choice morsel of food to Judas, the traitor. He recalls these words from the psalm, which is actually the plea of a man who is sick and whose friends have abandoned him. It is in this ancient prayer that Christ finds the words and the sentiments to express his profound sadness.
We will now try to follow and cast some light on the overall theme of this psalm, which flows from the lips of a person who, undoubtedly, is suffering because of his illness, but who is suffering above all because of the cruel irony of his “enemies” (see Psalm 41:6-9) and because he has been betrayed by a “friend” (see verse 10).
The Plea of the Lonely
Psalm 41 opens with a blessing. The recipients of this blessing are those who are truly friends, who are “concerned for the lowly and the poor.” The Lord will reward them in their day of suffering, when they find themselves “on their sickbed” (see verses 2-4).
However, the heart of this plea is contained in the following passage, where the ailing man speaks (see verses 5-10). He begins his prayer by asking God for forgiveness, according to a concept that is traditional in the Old Testament in which every pain was the result of a corresponding sin: “Lord, have mercy on me; heal me, I have sinned against you” (verse 5; see Psalm 38). For the ancient Jew, sickness was an appeal to his conscience in order to guide him to conversion.
Although Christ, the definitive source of revelation, has dismissed this idea (see John 9:1-3), suffering in itself can conceal a secret value and become a path of purification, interior freedom and enrichment for the soul. It is an invitation to overcome our superficiality, vanity, egoism and sin, and to entrust ourselves more deeply to God and to his saving will.
Malice of the Wicked
At this point, the wicked enter the picture — those who come and visit the sick man not to comfort him but to attack him (see verses 6-9). Their words are harsh and strike at the very heart of the psalmist, who experiences a malice that knows no mercy. This is exactly what many poor and humble people experience, people who are condemned to being alone and feeling as though they are a burden to the members of their family. If, at times, they receive a word of consolation, they immediately perceive a false and hypocritical tone.
As we have said, the psalmist experiences harshness and indifference, even from his friends (see verse 10), who are transformed into hostile and hateful figures. The psalmist attributes to them a gesture of scorn, that of “lifting the heel,” the threatening act of someone who is about to trample upon his vanquished enemy or the instinctive impulse of the horseman to provoke his horse with his heel in order to trample down his adversary.
When the one who strikes him is “the friend” whom he trusted, who in Hebrew is literally called “the man of peace,” the bitterness is deep. We recall Job's friends, who were transformed from lifelong companions into hostile and indifferent people (see Job 19:1-6). The voice of the multitude of people who have been forgotten and humiliated in their infirmity and weakness, especially by those who should have supported them, resounds in the voice of the psalmist.
God Is in Control
However, the prayer of Psalm 41 does not end on a gloomy note.
The psalmist is certain that God will appear on the horizon, revealing his love once again (see verses 11-14). He will offer him support and take the sick man into his arms so that he will once again “stand in the presence” of his Lord (verse 13), which in biblical language means reliving the experience of a liturgical celebration in the Temple.
Thus, this psalm, which is marked by pain, finishes on a ray of light and hope. From this perspective, one can understand why St. Ambrose, in his commentary on the opening blessing (see verse 2), saw it as a prophetic invitation to meditate on Christ's saving passion that leads to the resurrection. It is with the following words that this Father of the Church suggests we begin our reading of the psalm: “Blessed is the one who thinks of the misery and poverty of Christ who, even though he was rich, made himself poor for us. Rich in his Kingdom yet poor in the flesh, because he has taken on himself this flesh of the poor … He did not suffer, therefore, in his richness but in our poverty. It is for this reason that it was not the fullness of the divinity that suffered … but the flesh. Try therefore to penetrate the meaning of Christ's poverty, if you wish to be rich! Try to penetrate the meaning of his weakness, if you wish to obtain salvation! Try to penetrate the meaning of his cross, if you do not want to be ashamed of it; the meaning of his wound, if you wish to heal yours; the meaning of his death, if you wish to attain eternal life; the meaning of his burial, if you wish to find resurrection” (Commento a Dodici Salmi: Saemo, VIII, Milan-Rome, 1980, p. 39-41).
(Register translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Pope's Busy June DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:Following his June 4 meeting with President Bush, a two-day trip to Switzerland on June 5-6, a meeting on June 7 with a delegation of the Serbian Patriarchate and the liturgical celebrations for the solemnity of Corpus Christi on June 10, Pope John Paul II's schedule is busy for the rest of June.
For the second half of the month in addition to the continuing ad limina visits by bishops of the United States, a number of meetings are scheduled in the Vatican and it is expected the Pope will receive the participants of these gatherings or address a message to them.
On June 14 the Pontifical Councils for Culture, Interreligious Dialogue and Christian Unity, together with the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, have organized a meeting on the New Age. Participants will evaluate the response given to the document “Jesus Christ, Bearer of Living Water,” a provisional report published by the Vatican last year on this complex phenomenon, which was the result of reflections by an interdepartmental study group on the new religious movements.
On June 19, the Holy Father will receive 10,000 faithful from the Diocese of Aversa, Italy, who have come to Rome on a pilgrimage. Most often, when large groups from a diocese come to Rome, it is to “repay” the Holy Father for a visit he made to their particular church.
ROACO, the Italian acronym for the Assembly for the Works of Assistance to the Oriental Churches, will hold its annual assembly in the offices of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity June 22-24. ROACO is an umbrella committee that gathers the various agencies throughout the world that give economic and pastoral support to the Eastern Churches and includes such agencies as the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (United States), Oeuvre d'Orient (France), Kinder-hilfe Bethlehem (Switzerland) and Misereor and Missio (Germany), to name a few. The Pope traditionally receives participants in this meeting.
As 2004 is the International Year of the Family — a subject very dear to John Paul's heart — the office for the university ministry of the vicariate of Rome is co-sponsoring a four-day European symposium of university professors on the theme “The Family in Europe: Foundations, Experiences, Perspectives.” The meeting starts June 24 with a keynote address by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar of Rome, in the presence of civil and religious authorities.
On June 25 the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas will hold its plenary on the topic “Being and Personhood” in Vatican City in the Pius IV House.
One of the more moving and evocative liturgical events of the year occurs on the June 29 solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, apostles and patrons of Rome, when the Pope, in a concelebrated Mass in the early evening in St. Peter's Square, bestows the pallium on metropolitan archbishops whom he has appointed during the year.
The pallium, placed on the shoulders of the recipient, is a band of white wool with two hanging pieces, front and back, that is decorated with seven black crosses and represents the authority of a metropolitan archbishop and unity with the Holy Father.
The wool used in weaving the palliums comes from baby lambs that are blessed by the Pope each year in his private apartment on the Jan. 21 feast of St. Agnes, whose symbol is a lamb. St. Agnes died about 350 and is buried in the basilica named for her on Rome's Via Nomentana.
The lambs are raised by Trappist Fathers of the Abbey of the Three Fountains and the palliums are made from the newly-shorn wool by the sisters of St. Cecilia and brought to St. Peter's Basilica, where they are stored in a special coffer in the confessio below the main altar.
This year, the January feast coincided with the weekly general audience and the lambs were, for the first time ever, blessed by the Pope in the presence of thousands of faithful. Usually in attendance at the Jan. 21 ceremony are two Trappist fathers, two canons of the Chapter of St. John, the dean of the Roman Rota, two ceremonial officers and two officials from the Office of the Liturgical Ceremonies of the Supreme Pontiff.
In a 1978 document, De Sacri Pallii, Pope Paul VI restricted the use of the pallium to the Pope and metropolitan archbishops. In 1984 John Paul decreed that it would be conferred on the metropolitans by the Pope on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.
Interestingly enough, especially for visitors to St. Peter's Basilica on June 29, this is one of only two days each year when the statue of St. Peter in the basilica is dressed in ornate papal vestments and wears the triple tiara and a papal ring on the index finger of his right hand. The first time is Feb. 22, feast of the Chair of Peter.
Joan Lewis works for Vatican Information Service.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joan Lewis ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Church in Italy Leads New Rush of Catholic Pilgrims Into Holy Land DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:JERUSALEM — In late April, more than a dozen well-known Italian athletes ran from Jerusalem to the Israeli-Palestinian checkpoint on the outskirts of Bethlehem.
Israeli athletes ran alongside the Italians until the checkpoint, and Palestinian athletes accompanied them from there onward. One member of the delegation carried a lighted torch blessed by Pope John Paul II.
Prior to the race, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, papal vicar of Rome and president of the Italian bishops’ conference, told the participants that “athletes are ambassadors of peace … and a symbol of what is possible (through) peace and dialogue.”
The high-profile Jerusalem-to-Bethlehem marathon was one of the many events and tours organized in recent months by Church officials eager to bring more pilgrims to the Holy Land.
Since the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000, the number of Catholic pilgrims to Israel and the Palestinian authorities has plummeted, according to the Israeli Ministry of Tourism. The drop, which was estimated at about 90% until the start of this year, has had a profound effect on local Christians, many of whom rely on pilgrimages for their livelihoods.
The Pope has often spoken out about the many difficulties facing Holy Land Christians, whose numbers have dwindled since the late 1940s, and the need to show solidarity with them. In this spirit, the Italian bishops’ conference late last year called on its bishops to reinstate pilgrimages and to set a goal of one Italian group per week.
The move followed intense meetings with Israeli tourism officials as well as with clergy based in the Holy Land, who stressed that local Christians often feel isolated, even abandoned.
Since then there have been several well-publicized visits by Church leaders, including Italian Cardinal Pio Laghi, and numerous pilgrimages arranged by the Vatican Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, the Vatican's official pilgrimage organizer.
Big Impact
It's easy to see why the drop in Catholic pilgrimages has had such a negative impact on local Christians and on Holy Land tourism as a whole. In 2000, Catholics represented 32% of all tourists to Israel; in 2003, they represented just 11%. Protestants, in contrast, were just 18% of Holy Land visitors in 2000 and barely 8% in 2003.
Since the end of January and the beginning of February, “there has been a huge increase of Catholic pilgrimages from Italy to Israel,” an Israeli tourism official said in an interview. From January to March, there was a 154% jump over the same period last year, from 3,044 pilgrims to 7,746 so far this year, the official noted.
The official said there has also been a noticeable increase in visitors from other Catholic countries during the same period. The number of Spaniards rose by 229%, the number of Mexicans by 291% and the number of Irish by 99%.
Gerard Denis, undersecretary of the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Jerusalem, said the local Church has worked hard to realize these numbers. Denis said Father Pierre Grech, the assembly's secretary, recently traveled to France and met with pilgrimage leaders “to assure them that it is safe here.”
Denis noted that “not one pilgrim has lost a drop of blood” during a visit to the Holy Land. “Pilgrimages are not targets,” he said.
While the pilgrimages are spiritually uplifting to all those who visit, Denis said, the effect pilgrimages have on Holy Land Christians is perhaps even more important.
“The mother church is in Jerusalem,” he said. “We don't want Christians in the Holy Land to feel forsaken. They fear that the world does not think about them. When Christians come it tells them that people the world over want to know their situation and help. People cannot say it isn't their problem.”
Thanks in large part to the Church's efforts to get pilgrimages back on track, it is no longer unusual to see tour groups at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old City or at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Hotels and restaurants are recording a modest upturn in business.
Americans Needed
Even so, most local tour operators say they have yet to experience a pilgrimage boom and say they are suffering as a result.
“Business during most of the intifada has been down 90-something percent,” said Basem Khoury, the owner of Shepherds Tours in Jerusalem. “Before the intifada we used to average 60 to 70 groups in April. This April we had three small ones.”
Prior to the uprising, Khoury said, his agency had 12 employees. Eight of them have since been laid off due to the dearth of visitors.
Khoury, a Christian Arab whose agency specializes in Christian pilgrimages, said his own business has increased “10% to 15%, but that includes both Catholics and Protestants.”
The tour operator said American Catholics, once the backbone of his business, are still scarce.
“We need them to come, to give us both financial and moral support,” he said.
Khoury stressed that “so many people benefit” when Christians put aside their concerns and come to the Holy Land.
“You see it at the hotels and the transport companies, in the restaurants and souvenir shops,” Khoury said. “Even vegetable stores benefit when you have a group staying in a hotel because the hotel needs to prepare food.”
Michele Chabin writes from Jerusalem.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michele Chabin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:Belgian Youth Say They Want to Marry
EXPATICA.COM, May 26 — Most young Belgians say they want to get married sometime in their lives, and two-thirds say they want a church wedding, according to a new survey.
Researches from the Catholic University at Leuven found in the study of 1,500 adolescents between ages 15 and 18 that 80% wanted to tie the knot, the European news site Expatica.com reported. Fifty-eight percent of those said they wanted a church wedding.
However, the survey also found some disturbing news — 60% of those questioned said they wanted to live with their future spouse before getting married. Also, only 16% said love would be their main reason for marrying.
Religious Leaders Support Palestinian State
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 1 — A group of Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders announced their support June 1 of President Bush's call for a Palestinian state and called for a special U.S. envoy to the Middle East to aid in peace negotiations.
“We believe in the road map. … We believe the United States has to do more and has to do it now,” said Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., referring to the U.S.-backed plan for peace, after the group met with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
“We know there is going to be a two-state solution,” said Reform Rabbi Paul Menitoff of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
A State Department spokesman said Powell isn't opposed to sending an envoy to the Middle East but the level of violence must subside so peacemaking can move forward.
Kenyan Abortion Doctor Arrested
Approximately 20,000 women are admitted to hospitals each year due to complications from abortions, and about 2,600 die from post-abortion complications, The Age newspaper in Australia reported. Those numbers and the recent findings have prompted debate over legalizing abortion.
Father Wesonga Maloba of the Archdiocese of Nairobi described the discovery of the fetuses as “the height of human hatred and irresponsibility.”
“(It is) a situation,” he said, “where people have relegated human life to the level of trash.”
Church Opposes New Spanish Government Policies
“Laws that permit the elimination of human lives don't deserve to be called laws,” said the secretary-general of the Spanish bishops’ conference, referring to the proposed abortion laws, the New York Times reported.
He also said Church leaders would support demonstrations against homosexual marriage and other steps taken since the March 14 elections.
Currently, couples must be legally separated for a year before filing for divorce, and in some places, same-sex couples are allowed some — but not all — of the benefits of marriage.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Pope, the President, And America's Legacy DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:It was an unexpected gesture.
And like so much of what Pope John Paul II does, it looks prophetic in hindsight.
“I send my regards to President Reagan and to Mrs. Reagan, who is so attentive to him in his illness,” the Pope said to President Bush on June 4 — the day before President Ronald Reagan died.
It was a touching, personal remark that seemed to come out of nowhere — the Pope sent no greetings to other American figures. But it made sense, the elderly Holy Father saluting the elderly former president 20 years after the two had known each other in the exuberance of their new roles as leaders of the world.
The two shared a lot in common back then. Reagan was the child of a Catholic father and a seamstress mother. So was John Paul, the difference being that the Pope's father raised him in the faith. Each had been an actor, each had an almost charismatic gift of communicating directly to the people and each used his gift to defend freedom.
In the ’80s, they came to share more. They both survived assassination attempts in the spring of 1981. Both stood cheerfully on principle, to the popular acclaim of the people and despite the vilification of the elite. And both saw their dreams realized as the Soviet Union dissolved under the sheer power of the principles they stood for, without any military battle.
Some authors have made a great deal out of the similarities and the cooperative relationship between Reagan and the Pope, describing a “holy alliance” between the two in a conscious conspiracy against communism.
The truth is that the two did indeed cooperate in that victory — but not in a partnership with each other. Instead, they each cooperated with providence.
That's because Reagan and the Pope also shared an expansive understanding of their vocations as world leaders. These weren't just men fulfilling their positions — they were generals on the side of right and good in the great battle of ideologies that marked the 20th century.
Compare Reagan's and John Paul's speeches about America's role in the liberation of Europe.
Reagan spoke to veterans at Normandy on the 40th anniversary of D-Day. “What inspired all the men of the armies that met here?” he asked. “We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief. It was loyalty and love. The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next.”
The Pope, at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2000, likewise hailed “the American people, with their rich heritage of commitment to freedom and equality under the law, their spirit of independence and commitment to the common good, their self-reliance and generosity in sharing their God-given gifts.”
“In the century just ended,” he added, “this heritage became synonymous with freedom itself for people throughout the world, as they sought to cast off the shackles of totalitarianism and to live in freedom. As one who is personally grateful for what America did for the world in the darkest days of the 20th century, allow me to ask: Will America continue to inspire people to build a truly better world, a world in which freedom is ordered to truth and goodness?”
Like the Holy Father, Reagan saw that America has a great responsibility. By being true to the religious, moral basis of the principles in her founding, she can do a great deal of good for the world. By straying, she can do a great deal of harm.
The Pope said that, in the face of a culture in which liberty has become license and even the right to life has been forgotten, it is up to people of faith to ensure that America goes in the right direction.
“For religious believers,” John Paul said, “our times offer a daunting yet exhilarating challenge. I would go so far as to say that their task is to save democracy from self-destruction.”
It is a daunting task. So daunting as to look impossible.
In much the same way D-Day looked impossible.
For Catholics, the best way to honor the Pope and his old friend Ronald Reagan is to take up the challenge they both gave us, and to fight for the American spirit they both loved.
As Reagan put it in his D-Day speech: “Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their valor, and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:Mostly Silent Shepherds
Our bishops are sending lay people a confusing message in response to the question of whether abortion supporter Sen. John Kerry should receive or be offered the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist (“Faith in the Spotlight,” April 25-May 1).
Several bishops have said he should not receive but they would not withhold Communion from him. Others have just said they would not refuse him Communion. Still others have said they will not offer Communion to him.
The Eucharist is a miraculous gift from God, a stunning example of the depth of his love for us. We must be spiritually prepared to receive the Eucharist and respond to God's love.
Promoters of abortion have caused the painful killing of some 46 million babies, the surreptitious injury of millions of young women told that abortion is a good and safe procedure and the promotion of abortion as a population-control measure — including spending our tax monies for compulsory abortion — in China. Kerry even supports the corruption of our young people through Planned Parenthood's promotion of contraception for teens.
The question of the worthy reception of the Eucharist has been with the Church throughout its history. St. Paul taught on the question in his first letter to the Corinthians. The scandal of pro-abortion Catholic politicians such as Kerry receiving Communion has been with us for 30 years. Catholics, indeed all people, deserve a unified statement and a unified position from the bishops — based on Church teaching and canon law — on whether promoters of the culture of death can be offered Communion.
Carolyn Naughton
Silver Spring, Maryland
Equality and Enemies
Regarding “Pornography and Iraq” (editorial, May 16-22):
With pride in America and our Armed Forces, I salute the vast majority of the men and women who serve our country with honor in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world. May God bless them and their families.
To allow the few who dishonor our country to become a reflection of our entire nation, and to place the blame for their actions on their commander-in-chief, is a form of treason.
Our soldiers in Iraq are not at war with the people of Iraq. Rather, they are peacemakers who have become victims of revenge and hatred by an unseen enemy who will even kill his own countrymen.
Without our military presence, mobs would rule a country that has lost the desire for peace.
In comparison, allowing a political party responsible for millions of deaths through abortion to resume power at any level of political life is a disgrace to every American who believes in the right to life according to our Constitution — which says we are all created equal.
Scandal is all around us, but the scandal of deliberate, willful abortion is the greatest scandal ever witnessed by any people — civilized or uncivilized.
Vincent Bemowski
Menasha, Wisconsin
Cracked Glass
What will it take for those in charge of priest formation to realize that homosexual orientation in the priesthood is a problem? When reminded of the fact that 80% of the sexual-abuse incidents involved homosexual predation on adolescent males (“NAC Rector: Abuse Scandal Hasn't Stopped Men From ‘Divine Call,’” April 25-May 1), Msgr. Kevin McCoy, rector of the North American College in Rome, urges caution not to jump to conclusions! Seems like 80% is strong evidence to be acted upon rather than a jump to conclusions.
While celibacy is crucial, as Msgr. McCoy indicates, how much more difficult will it be for a homosexual priest to remain celibate while living in close proximity with men? Also, will such a priest not always be an advocate, even unwittingly, for the homosexual lifestyle? Has Pope John Paul II not spoken against ordination of homosexuals as headlined in the Register in the recent past?
The introduction of even a small amount of error in Christ's Church has been likened to the tiny stone crack in a car windshield. It enlarges over time until the entire windshield must be replaced. If the 80% correlation doesn't cause Church leadership to rethink its policy of ordination of homosexuals, I suggest the crack in the windshield is very large, indeed.
Andrew J. Blazewicz Jr.
Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania
Meriting Mention
Having just read “A Man Fully Alive: Father Owen Keenan” (Priest Profile, May 30-June 5) and a few others prior, I must admit that I haven't done enough or been around enough to merit the honor. I was just on retreat last week with other diocesan priests, some of whom have been ordained for more than 60 years and who are still active. They're the type who deserve mention.
Nonetheless, I am happy with the article and am proud to be publicly recognized as a Pope John Paul II priest, which I proudly am!
Father Owen Keenan
St. Ignatius Church Mississauga, Ontario
Sadistic Soldiers
The editorial concerning the American abuse of Iraqi prisoners (“Pornography and Iraq,” May 16-22) made many valid points, but I believe it was overly simplistic to blame this evil on pornography.
When I was serving in the Navy, the ship I was on crossed the equator in September 1985. A certain traditional hazing occurred on that day, known as “crossing the line” or “wog day.” While taking part in this initiation was not compulsory, not to do so was regarded as dishonorable and made one a target of perpetual contempt.
Those of us who did take part in it were beaten on the buttocks with sawed-off fire hoses till we were literally black and blue, not to mention being subject to other countless and disgusting humiliations that went on for several hours. But the worst offense of the day was being ordered by “shellbacks” (sailors who had already crossed the equator) to simulate every variety of homosexual act upon each other.
Most of the “wogs” went along with such orders, but I refused — and was treated brutally as a result. And make no mistake, most of this was not done in any spirit of fun; it was done in an unmistakable spirit of sadism and even hatred.
Bear in mind, this was sailor against fellow sailor. So how hard is it to imagine what might happen to wartime enemies? I don't believe the abusers in Iraq were ordered to do these wretched things (which still would not excuse them); nor do I think this abuse was directed toward extracting any confessions. The abusers were simply having a “good time,” enjoying themselves the way certain sadists among the human race have always enjoyed doing.
With Pat Madrid, I am not surprised over this scandal in Iraq. But my explanation is somewhat different than his. Pornography? Sure, that could be part of the answer. But when we look at the mind-boggling evil that human beings do to others (including, of course, what Muslim terrorists do to others), explanations involving environment, politics, economics and immorality only partially suffice. A deeper and more meaningful explanation is Satan — who wants nothing more than to degrade and destroy, any way he can, the image of God in man.
JOHN LORANGER
Sparks, Nevada
Correction
The correct phone number for Quo Vadis Theatre (“To Transform Tinseltown,” Letters, June 6-12) is (408) 252-3530.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Won't Get Fooled Again DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:Regarding “Bishops Find Fault With Presidential Council's Bioethics Report” (April 25-May 1):
I was reading Tiger Beat and writing fan letters to Dino, Desi and Billy while Pope Paul VI was defending the Catholic Church's teaching against the use of contraception in his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae (On the Regulation of Birth). Although I was not a participant in the debate back then, I am now living in a world with the unfortunate evidence of a sexually saturated society — thanks in part to the acceptance of contraception as a gift from the “enlightened” world of scientific research.
All that was predicted by those opposed to contraception has become a reality and then some (abortion, AIDS, numerous other sexually transmitted diseases, divorce rates at more than 50%, the breakdown of the family, infertility, homosexual marriage, spousal abuse and so on). The detrimental legacy that the contraceptive mentality has wrought is yet to be realized.
I was among those “Catholics” who for many years believed the Church was “out of touch on the contraception thing.” However, I have since come to believe that oftentimes faith precedes understanding. I wish that my Catholic predecessors who were involved in the contraception debate had accepted the magisterium as faithful Catholics. I think the world would be a very different place right now. Good cannot come from anything that is intrinsically evil.
Today we have the Church speaking out against immoral stem-cell research. I do not doubt that many people are finding it difficult to accept this teaching as well. I would not want to be a legislator taking calls from parents whose children are afflicted with diseases. They are understandably impatient, but the taking of human life is intrinsically evil. There has been and will continue to be success in stem-cell research that does not require the destruction of human embryos.
And make no mistake. This debate is about the taking of human life. Those in favor of the research will phrase their intent in such a way as to make it appealing enough for many to decide that once again the Church is out of date.
As the saying goes: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
Patte Kennedy Mokena, Illinois
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Bishops and The Communion Conundrum DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:Public declarations by bishops regarding the reception of holy Communion by pro-abortion politicians began with a trickle last January and have widened into a stream, with more and more bishops weighing in with pastoral letters, articles, homilies and pronouncements of other sorts.
The positions taken vary. Some have called for the outright refusal of Communion to unambiguously pro-abortion legislators, others have called on such politicians to willingly abstain from holy Communion and others have said they prefer not to use the Eucharist as a sanction for ensuring political morality.
While it is clearly up to each bishop to decide how he will apply the relevant canonical norms (see Code of Canon Law, No. 915), the debate has offered a singular “teaching moment” for the Catholic hierarchy.
Fundamental questions of Catholic morals, the responsibility of Christians engaged in public service, the provisions of canon law and key elements of sacramental theology have become topics of table conversation and op-ed columns even in the mainline secular media. All of this is surely a good thing.
Without wishing to tackle here the multiple factors in such a discussion, I would briefly like to address two arguments that one hears with increasing frequency, namely the separation of the internal and external forums and the pastoral choice between conscience formation and disciplinary action.
In Catholic parlance the “internal forum” refers to the area of conscience such as revealed to a confessor or spiritual director and concerns one's subjective moral state before God. The “external forum,” on the other hand, refers to Church governance and public record. The internal and external forums correspond roughly to the private and public sectors of ecclesiastical life.
This distinction often comes up in the debate regarding whether or not to deny Communion to pro-abortion politicians because it seems to some that the denial of Communion would entail a judgment of a person's subjective moral status and thus cross over from the external to the internal forum.
Bishops have cited the longstanding Church practice of refraining from making a public judgment about the state of the souls of those who present themselves for Communion. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 1861) states the basic Catholic principle that no one can know with absolute certainty the state of another's soul. Some bishops argue that a vote for legislation that supports abortion doesn't necessarily mean that a person is in a state of sin — and that at any rate, that judgment can't be made.
Such a conclusion would be compelling if in fact knowledge of the state of a person's soul were necessary in order to refuse Communion. This doesn't seem to be the case, however, since such a necessity would render meaningless the provision of canon law that sets forth the conditions for the denial of holy Communion. If knowledge of the subjective state of another's soul were necessary, no priest could ever refuse holy Communion under any circumstances.
Here it is important to recall that “sin” comprises both an objective element and a subjective one. Without going so far as to make a judgment on a person's soul, the Church may refuse holy Communion to persons who persist in an objectively sinful action (grave matter) of a public nature with no signs of repentance. This is what canon law means by saying that those “who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy Communion.”
The second argument relates to the trade-off between teaching and forming consciences on the one hand and disciplining transgressors on the other.
Recently I was speaking with an American bishop here in Rome for his ad limina visit who told me that he opposes denial of Communion to pro-abortion politicians because at that point “it is too late.” He said he favors a more pedagogical approach whereby consciences are rightly formed according to Catholic doctrine so that Catholic lawmakers will make the right decisions in the future.
The problem here, it seems to me, stems from the radical divorce between teaching and disciplining. Is not “discipline,” at least etymologically, the characteristic virtue of the “disciple” or learner? Doesn't discipline have an essentially pedagogical function?
When Church leaders take a strong stand on a particular issue (in this case the moral gravity of abortion), they send a clear message to the faithful that certain moral matters are non-negotiable and that certain actions will provoke consequences. This message reaches beyond the persons directly involved and touches everyone who hears of it.
Even in civil society the law exercises more that just a punitive role. Legislation, and the penalties attached to civil infractions, teaches citizens what is expected of them and what sort of behavior will not be tolerated. Similarly, the decriminalization of determined activities sends a tacit message that such behavior isn't really all that bad. People can't help interpreting tolerance of a given behavior as a judgment of the relative significance attached to it.
I can understand that some bishops would prefer to avoid confrontations at the altar rail, yet this teaching moment may involve some lessons that won't be learned any other way.
American moral theologian Father Thomas D. Williams, LC, is dean of the theology school at Rome's Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Thomas D. Williams, LC ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: A Mother's Plea for Modesty DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:The innocuous carton of eggs, milk and bread moved along the black conveyer belt as my daughters surveyed the candy on the rack behind me in the checkout line at the grocery store. As they excitedly requested peanut M&Ms, my eyes drifted up and went wide as my jaw dropped at the sight of the licentious magazine cover before me.
I hastily flipped the magazine over and embarked on a quest to find the store manager, groceries in hand and daughters in tow. “Have you see this?” I queried, as I showed him the magazine cover. I explained how such images rob children of innocence.
“You're right!” he said, to my relief. (This man was sympathetic since he had daughters of his own.) Much to his credit, he pulled all of these magazines from their racks.
But prior to my complaint, many parents, teens and children had lazily strolled through the checkout line, seemingly unfazed by what they had seen. What point have we reached when we can view, and allow our children to view, such magazine covers without blinking an eye? Like the proverbial slow-boiled frog, could it be that we have been so slowly cooked that our sensitivities to modesty were boiled away before we knew to jump from the pot?
Depressing
Given that America is the land of “freedom,” some wonder why so many American girls appear to be part of such a depressed lot. A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that a startling 30.4% of girls in grades nine to 12 have thought seriously about suicide.
The increase in recent decades of teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, abortion, eating disorders, promiscuity, addictions, date rape and depression is a sign we are failing our young. One way we are failing them is with unbridled permissiveness. This permissiveness rears its head in a multiplicity of ways, but one way our permissiveness is blatantly manifested is by the situation where girls may wear what they like with no thought to the impact their mode of dress will have on themselves or on others.
Our silence in this regard has been interpreted as assent by our girls, and with our perceived assent, many girls have chosen a style of dress that unwittingly leaves them vulnerable and unprotected — a state that adds nothing to a young girl's self-esteem or true identity as a child of God.
Immodest dress only encourages boys to look at young girls as objects of desire, when what the souls of girls need most from boys is respect for their dignity and for the truth that they are made in the image of God (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 357).
We do no service to boys, either, by our permissiveness, as they should also be taught to seek a life of chastity and virtue. Willfully permitting immodest dress by girls does not aid them in this regard but instead sends them quite the opposite message.
But when children understand who they are in Christ, it is then that they will truly understand who they are. It is only in recognition of their identity as treasured children of God, children called to purity, chastity and holiness, that our girls can fill the empty void that would otherwise take them down the road to depression, despondency and despair.
Our girls are not fully responsible for their dress.
It is we, the adults in their world — we who are teachers, educators and, most of all, parents, and thus called by God to be the “primary educators” of our children — who have failed to properly shield them.
We have failed to teach them the Catholic truths on the subject. “Train a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not swerve from it” (Proverbs 22:6). We have failed to teach our girls to the point that many young girls do not know what modesty is let alone understand why it is a virtue to be treasured and upheld.
Bombarded by magazines, television and the Internet with a plethora of immodest images at every turn, it is very possible that we adults no longer understand what modesty is ourselves. But when Christ ascended into heaven, he did not abandon us. He sent his Holy Spirit to dwell within us and to speak to us.
The Holy Spirit whispers God's immutable truths to us through the magisterium, through the Catechism and through his shepherds on earth. The Catechism guides us that modest dress “keeps silence or reserves where there is unhealthy risk of curiosity. It is discreet” (No. 2522). Modesty “means refusing to unveil what should remain hidden” (No. 2521). It is designed to protect our girls.
Bishops’ Guidelines
U.S. bishops and cardinals have approved certain standards of dress as acceptable and practical for women and girls. These standards provide a “reliable guide for anyone seriously interested in avoiding immodesty in dress …” The standards issued by the bishops consider all of the following objectionable: bared-midriff styles, low-cut necklines, halter and strapless dresses, “short” shorts, skirts above the knee and swimsuits that are strapless, bared-midriff or bikini styles. The bishops also indicated “transparent fabrics are not considered as coverage.”
Our girls need to know that the children of Fatima in 1917 heard the warning that “many fashions would arise that would offend Our Lord” and that many of these offensive fashions are being actively promulgated directly to American girls. Why did Our Lady warn us of this? Wasn't she trying to protect us? Did she perhaps foresee that one day young girls would enter Catholic churches and receive our Lord in holy Communion while wearing halter tops, miniskirts, and strapless and low-cut dresses? Did she foresee that the adults in their lives would see fit to offer not one word of guidance or correction?
The damage immodest dress does to the purity of a young girl's soul is like the damage cigarettes do to a human lung: Very slowly, over time, it is left dark and malfunctioning.
By permitting our girls to dress immodestly, we make them a cause for the near occasion of sin for others, including boys. Jesus dealt harshly with this type of sin: “Everyone who looks at a women lustfully has already committed adultery in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). If immodest dress promotes lust, and if lust is equivalent to adultery, then we can allow our girls to be an occasion of serious sin for others simply by our permitting them to wear inappropriate attire.
There are plenty of clothes in America that are both fashionable and modest, clothes that protect rather than expose, clothes that honor rather than offend. It is toward these clothes that we, the adults in America, ought to be guiding our girls.
Our Blessed Mother is the epitome of purity and beauty. She is a model for girls that beauty comes from a pure heart and a soul that honors God. Modesty does not detract from beauty. It adds mystery to and enhances it. Modesty helps everyone to see a girl not as an object but as a precious soul made in the image of God. It helps girls to maintain their self-esteem and to know they are valued for who it is they truly are: daughters of a loving Father who are called to do his will on earth that they spend eternity with him in heaven. It is time to teach our girls these immutable truths.
Mary Anne Moresco writes from Howell, New Jersey.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mary Anne Moresco ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Nearing the End of His Office Opposed by John Kerry - DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:Picture yourself in his place for a moment.
You are the head of a great people who have done much good in the world. Your people stand for truth, freedom, generosity, valor, heroic self-sacrifice for others and have a long and proven tradition of putting that into practice on the ground, even at the cost of their lives in places such as the European and Pacific theaters of war.
Indeed, just a little more than a decade ago, your people were hailed as some of the principal agents in bringing a tyrannical regime to its knees. Yet ungrateful European sophisticates routinely sneer at you and your people and seek to distance themselves from you.
Today, as has happened so often, you find you are at war again. Or perhaps, the better word is “still,” for as Edmund Burke famously put it, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” You are at war with a foe who is implacable, murderous and not at all inclined to need provocation from you to desire your death and take steps to make that a reality.
In fact, the enemy struck early in your tenure of office and engineered an extremely painful blow to you and your people. Recovery came with time, but you have no doubt of the extremes of evil the enemy is capable of working and, even now, around the world, innocent people are being destroyed, both body and soul, because of this enemy.
So you and your people are engaged in an epic global struggle with that enemy and you are trying desperately to marshal an organized response from your people to face this deadly foe before an even greater catastrophe overtakes your people when they least expect it.
But there are not just enemies without. There are also enemies within.
Recently, it has come to light that some of your troops have committed grotesque abuses. It is an outrage that the abuse took place and you have called for the expulsion of those who committed the abuses while simultaneously resisting the clamor for purges that would gut the leadership of your troops.
You keep struggling to remind a public with a short attention span that we still face a deadly and implacable foe and that sacking a huge portion of your command structure is a bad idea in a time of war.
But the press seems to only want to talk 24/7 about the grotesque sexual abuses committed by the relatively small number of troops while completely ignoring a) the far greater evil your people are still struggling to oppose, and b) the many great good things your people still do for the world.
Every discussion of any other topic is carefully minimized. Every old wound has its scab picked. Even troops who have been drummed out or court-martialed have their stories dredged up again so the public is continually re-reminded of the crimes they committed, while the enemy you are at war with is sometimes — outrageously — given puff-piece treatments in the foreign press.
When you try to form alliances to get something done, you are faulted for forming alliances with the wrong people. If you form no alliances, you are faulted for being too arrogant and trying to run the show yourself.
Every failure by members of your army is emphasized as “typical.” Every success is downplayed.
When your generals do nothing, they are faulted for doing nothing. When they act, they are faulted for not doing enough or for doing the wrong thing. When you enunciate your principles, you are condemned as a hypocrite because your people have failed to live by them. When you try to act on your principles, you are condemned for not working miracles on finite resources. And like an annoying endless loop recording, the abuse of those in the charge of your troops is flung in your face as the sole thing that defines you and your people, over and over and over again.
What should you, the Pope, do?
Now admittedly, the analogy is not perfect. Bishops who knowingly reshuffled abusive priests, lied, covered up or strong-armed victims acted with less integrity than the military, which appears to have undertaken an investigation of its abuse problems on its own.
However, my point is not about the military nor to claim that some bishops have not failed. My point is that, often as not, the same people who are screaming that the relentless negativity of the press is making it extremely difficult for the us to do the work it needs to do in its grand campaign to bring about what David Frum calls an “end to evil” seem to think nothing of relentlessly focusing on the negative and hampering the Church in its very real and God-ordained end-to-evil campaign.
In short, the reality is there is much more to the Church than some bad bishops and abusive priests, just as there is much more to the United States than Abu Ghraib. Moreover, there are worse “evils” in the world than the U.S. Army and the Catholic Church, but you'd never know it from the press.
Let's pray we don't discover it by experience.
Mark Shea is Senior Content Editor for CatholicExchange.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mark Shea ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Eucharistic Virtue DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:Corpus Christi, the feast that highlights friendship with Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, has a slightly different emphasis than that observed on Holy Thursday, the Church's other great Eucharistic feast.
If Holy Thursday is centered on the gift of Christ's permanent sacrifice in the Mass and the priesthood, Corpus Christi is the feast that celebrates and promotes the adoration of Christ's permanent presence in the tabernacle.
The Eucharistic liturgy can seem a lot more active and dramatic — and communal — than quiet adoration, just “being with” the Lord. But “much can be happening when nothing appears to be happening,” as theologian Father James O'Connor says of Eucharistic adoration in The Hidden Manna, A Theology of the Eucharist.
Would-be adorers should be warned that what could seem like “quiet time” in a semi-deserted church will produce significant and surprising consequences.
I know. It happened to me. Though conser vative about most things, I was really much more of a “cafeteria Catholic” than I would have liked to admit. For example, I used to shake my head in wonder as a “liberal” friend acknowledged his misgivings about using contraception in his marriage. A mere scruple, I thought.
More interested in prayer and spirituality than the trifles of moral theology, I was a newlywed myself when I decided to make a daily holy hour. The practice, while not always easy, quickly became a delight. Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament swept me off my feet and blessed me with his deep and intimate friendship.
As time went on, I felt increasingly unsettled. It seemed I was not responding to this lover of my heart. Eager to help, the Eucharistic Christ seemed to inspire in me this simple prayer: “Lord, let me see myself.”
Slowly, I gained new insights and felt pulled in directions that seemed foreign, not my style. I was newly drawn, for example, to simplicity, greater chastity and charity. Basic Christian precepts that had barely drawn my notice in the past now seemed lush and beautiful. I also felt new remorse for my sins and former attitudes.
One day, while driving alone, I came to this simple yet searing conclusion: “I embrace everything the Church proposes for my belief — and behavior — and will live accordingly, no matter the cost or consequences.” This was not so much my own personal decision as a gift from God that I was free to accept. I did so with joy.
I recently learned that this infused desire to follow God and never to offend him pertains to what St. Ignatius Loyola described as the first degree of humility, the foundation of all virtue.
While I pray for many intentions at adoration, and my family and I have been blessed in myriad ways, it seems that my own heart has been the chief beneficiary. Even in terms of human development and self-understanding, there is “nothing more pleasant, more efficacious” than this sweet exercise.
Those last words are from an encyclical on the Eucharist written by Pope Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei, in 1965 right after Vatican II, when the appropriateness of worshipping the Eucharist outside of Mass was questioned by some.
I and so many others have found true Paul VI's words that adoration uniquely “establishes good morals, nourishes virtues … strengthens the weak and calls all to imitate him … meek and humble of heart, seeking not their own interests but those of God.”
Joe Cullen writes from Floral Park, New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Cullen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Pray-Out at the OK Corral DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:Only two blocks from the notorious Birdcage Theater in the town “too tough to die,” you can find proof that the miners, gamblers, dance-hall girls and gunslingers of the Old West were never too tough to pray.
The legendary Wild West unfolded in an era when life was cheap, the law was whoever had the fastest gun, and worshipping God was something for the occasional schoolteacher, beleaguered Mexican peasant or unflappable missionary.
Did this world ever really exist at all? No matter. It certainly holds a place in our nation's imagination. And no city exemplifies the mythos better than Tombstone, this former silver metropolis of the Arizona Territory. Its lawless and bawdy history was so indelible that, decades after the last silver mine closed, the community still survives — albeit on the money of tourists. Folks come from around the world to visit the city's former saloons, theaters and brothels, which now house souvenir shops and museums.
Walking down Allen Street, tourists examine the plaques marking the spots where incorrigible outlaws met their violent end. Then they witness daily re-enactments of shootouts and brawls from this place's lawless past.
Yet, even after taking all that in, the visitor still has only an incomplete picture of his surroundings. Months before the infamous gunfight at the OK Corral, which absolutely did happen much as we've heard it — on Oct. 26, 1881, to be precise — citizens of the legendary town celebrated their community's first church and dedicated it to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (feast day: June 18).
The sanctuary stands today as testament to their faith, which triumphed over the early chaos and violence to shepherd the community through the 20th century and into the 21st.
“With the large influx of people from around the country and the world, it was inevitable that there would be chaos,” says Father Sylvester Nwaogu, the latest pastor of the historic parish. “However, in the midst of those tragic events that people remember about Tombstone, there were good people living here, too.”
It was the parish that helped provide a means for those people to bring peace to the town's streets. “The church was built for everyone, not just saints,” Father Nwaogu adds. “It extends the hand of friendship to sinners, and over time, this has a refining effect.”
Commanding Presence
Tombstone was named by prospector Ed Schieffelin, who went in search of silver in the plateau above the San Pedro River in 1877. Warned by soldiers at Tucson's Fort Lowell that the only thing he'd find in the Apache-controlled hills was his tombstone, Schieffelin instead found one of the richest silver strikes in U.S. history, second only to the Comstock in Virginia City, Nev.
Marking his discovery with its ironic name, he set about establishing a mine and a community for the miners. By 1881, Tombstone boasted a population of more than 6,000 people and, for a few years, until it was surpassed by Tucson, was the largest city between El Paso and San Diego.
The first Sacred Heart Church, now one of three of that name to have served Tombstone since 1881, was the result of a cooperative effort by the Right Rev. Jean Baptiste Salpointe, vicar apostolic and later bishop of the Tucson Diocese; Father Antonio Jouvencaeu, appointed Tombstone's first pastor in 1879; and Nellie Cash-man, restaurant and boarding-house operator and legendary “Angel of the Camp.”
The result of their effort was a two-story, four-room territorial-style adobe building, one of the largest noncommercial structures in town. It included a church and sacristy on the first floor and a rectory on the second, with a full-length porch and second-floor veranda. The church was ornamented with a gabled metal roof with gabled dormers opening onto the veranda, along with an enclosed front garden with an adobe wall to separate it from the noise and traffic along Safford Street.
It was supplanted a year later by a second, much larger church building, now the oldest wood-frame building in Arizona. As with the first one, this railroad-Gothic revival church was built to the highest standards of the era, with high and wide Gothic arched doors, hardwood strip floors and a tongue-and-groove wooden-plank ceiling and plastered interior walls with wainscoting.
With the completion of the new church, the 1881 building became the rectory, a duty it retained for 90 years, until a new one was built in 1972. Since then, it has served as the parish office.
The 1882 church was modified over the years. A bell tower with a 610-pound bell from St. Louis was added in 1883; the board-and-batten exterior siding was covered by stucco during a 1925 modernization, which also covered the high-pitched, wooden-shingled roof with corrugated metal.
However, the 1882 church remained mostly unchanged until 1947, when it was moved to face Sixth Street so room could be made for a new church, designed by the then-celebrated Tucson architect Terry Atkinson. This austere modern Spanish/modern mission-style building became a model for church construction throughout the Southwestern United States during the 1950s and ’60s.
The Whole Story
To make room for the three church buildings, Tombstone's pioneer Giacoma-Costello family donated an adjacent lot to the parish, formerly the site of the family home. The lot included two rose trees, planted in the 1880s and now the oldest in the state. The trees, which cover a large wooden trellis, shade a plaza and shrine to St. Jude, dedicated in honor of the parishioners who have sustained the church over its 123-year history.
Since 2000, Sacred Heart parish has become the focus of a restoration and remodeling effort, which has returned the 1881 church-rec-tory to its original condition and constructed a landscaped walkway to connect the various parish buildings. The site was proclaimed a National Historic Site by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2002.
For tourists seeking to experience the Wild West, Father Nwaogu encourages a walk along Allen Street, “because that's what attracts people to come here.”
However, to get the whole story, they should stroll a couple of blocks further and see the Church of the Sacred Heart. There the tourists can do more than revisit the ghosts of the past. They can experience a frontier spirit that is as real as it is enduring.
Philip S. Moore writes from Vail, Arizona.
----- EXCERPT: Sacred Heart Church, Tombstone, Ariz. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Philip S. Moore ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: 'Masterpiece of the Holy Spirit' DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:Honoring the Sacred Heart of Jesus, first Fridays and every day
It wasn't so long ago that you could identify a home as Catholic just by walking in the front door.
On the mantle or in some other place of prominence, you'd spot a painting or statue depicting Jesus pointing to his chest. From there your eyes would be drawn to his exposed heart, radiant with the fire of his love and pierced by his crown of thorns.
“Devotion to the Sacred Heart was promoted very strongly back in the 1940s and ’50s,” says Sacred Heart Father Charles Yost, spiritual director of the Sacred Heart Auto League based in Walls, Miss. “It was very much a part of my family when I grew up.”
Times have changed, of course. Few and far between, it seems, are the Catholic households that witness their Catholic faith to guests and visitors by displaying the Sacred Heart.
Well, there's no time like the present — during June, the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart (the feast falling on the 18th) — for families to rediscover one of the Church's most powerful devotions.
Where to start? Think Friday — nine consecutive first Fridays, that is.
“First Friday is a wonderful way for the family to get together and gather for prayer,” Father Yost explains. “There are little acts of consecration to the Sacred Heart they can say as a family and renew each month.”
First Friday devotions began with St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a 17th-century French nun to whom Jesus communicated, among other things, his desire for a special devotion to his heart.
“One Friday during holy Communion,” she recorded in her diary, “he said these words to his unworthy slave, if I mistake not: ’I promise you in the excessive mercy of my heart that its all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive holy Communion on nine first Fridays of consecutive months the grace of final repentance. They will not die under my displeasure or without receiving their sacraments, my divine heart making itself their assured refuge at the last moment.’”
“We use First Friday Masses to stress the fact that, while it's the individual who commits himself, the devotion is best done in the family,” the priest adds. “It's linked to Father Patrick Peyton's famous truism: 'the family that prays together, stays together.’”
The Walker family in Spring, Texas — Hal and Barbara and their four girls and one boy, ages 4 to 14 — go as a family to confession and Mass each first Friday.
“We let the children know of the promises the Sacred Heart made to St. Margaret Mary,” Barbara Walker says. “Because of their beautiful innocence, children respond to really wanting to receive the sacraments before death and get to heaven.”
According to Father Yost, St. Margaret Mary underscored the Eucharistic emphasis of her mysterious visions: Not for nothing did Jesus connect a request for devotion to his heart with frequent Communion and holy hours.
Nor should it be overlooked that it was on the feast of Corpus Christi that Jesus told Margaret Mary: “Behold the heart that has so loved men.” Then he confided the pain he experienced over receiving so little gratitude from human hearts, even after all he had done for them. He asked for a feast of reparation on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi.
In explaining this, Father Yost takes pains to point out that, just as the Eucharist is all of Jesus — body and blood, soul and divinity — so the Sacred Heart devotion is meant to honor all of Jesus.
“This is a devotion to the person of Jesus Christ,” he adds. “It's not proper or correct to have just the image of the heart; the heart is imposed on the image of Christ. The devotion stresses the love of Christ for us, which we should return to him. The heart is the universal symbol of love. Almost every culture understands that.”
So it was fitting that, in June 2002, Pope John Paul II said in a short address: “To celebrate the heart of Christ means to turn toward the profound center of the Person of the Savior, that center the Bible identifies precisely as his heart, seat of the love that has redeemed the world. In order to save man … God wished to give him a ’new heart,’ faithful to his will of love. This heart is the heart of Christ, the masterpiece of the Holy Spirit, which began to beat in the virginal womb of Mary and was pierced by the lance on the cross, thus becoming for all the inexhaustible source of eternal life.”
The Martin family of St. Louis — Jeffrey, Ann and their five boys and two girls — always turn to the Sacred Heart in a special way each June. Ann Martin says the children are eager to learn of Jesus’ love and his request to St. Margaret Mary to make reparations for sins against the Euchaxrist.
Small art projects, she says, have been instrumental in getting the message to take root in their hearts.
“By drawing pictures of the figure of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, they begin to understand,” she says. “We put the crown of thorns around it, and we often put a slash wound to show where he was lanced. Then we put the flames coming out the top because of his tremendous love and because of what he did for us.”
“My children have drawn the picture over and over again,” she adds. “They love to do different takes.” Michael, 15, has been working for months on an oil painting of the Sacred Heart he's going to give to his father for the office.
Ann also emphasizes how important it is for Catholics “to enthrone in their home the Sacred Heart of Jesus” and place a picture of the Sacred Heart in a prominent place.
And why not? The Sacred Heart is a timeless devotion and a wordless witness that will never go out of style.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Stable Mates DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:Facts of Life
Of 1,600 adults surveyed in May by Match. com, the online dating service, a whopping 91% said they'd be more interested in a moderately successful career person with a balanced life than in a highly successful workaholic. Also of interest: A strong majority (62%) said they're more likely to fall for a stable, fairly predictable person than a risk-taker.
Source: PRNewswire, May 20.
Register illustration by Tim Rauch.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: His Mission: Pope's Vision DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:Priest Profile
A parish grows in southern California. But don't bother looking in the local yellow pages for the architect.
“The real building plan is not with bricks and mortar but with catechisms and Bibles, with Eucharistic holy hours and adult-formation classes,” says Father Joseph Illo, pastor of the parish, St. Joseph's in Modesto. “We are working much more closely with Pope John Paul II and his plans for the New Evangelization than we are with our architects and their plans for larger buildings. John Paul is the real architect of this parish, and we priests and lay staff are all the masons and carpenters.”
The parish's mission statement is: “To bring every Catholic within our parish boundaries to Mass to receive the holy Eucharist in the state of grace each week. In this way we hope to build a civilization of love.”
It's an ambitious mission. The parish has 4,300 families and expects to add 2,000 more to the rolls within five years. About 8,000 new homes are being built within the parish boundaries in that period.
Father Illo, who has headed the parish for the past four years, knows that “bricks and mortar” must be in place for the spiritual mission to succeed. St. Joseph's was founded in 1967 on the outskirts of Modesto, a city with a population of 203,000, when the area was orchards and open fields. “Now our parish is suburbia and quickly becoming urbanized,” the priest notes.
With a $6 million building fund, the parish bought two adjacent parcels of land recently for $2.5 million, one with an office building where the booming religious-education program will be relocated. In time, Father Illo prays, the parish will open an elementary school in the building, too.
The parish hall is being refurbished and expanded to increase its size by 33%. Plans for the church are nearing completion. An architect is doing a structural analysis of the present building and will submit a recommendation either to expand the church or tear it down and build a structure that is 50% larger. It's an exciting time of growth.
“Our parking [lot] is so crowded that people park in the lots of all the local businesses,” Father Illo says. “We've had to start a ‘parking apostolate’ with guys with radios, safety vests and cones directing traffic on Sundays.”
The parish's staff is also growing. Assisting Father Illo are two associate priests and a permanent deacon. The lay staff of full-time and part-time employees numbers 30. They administer a long list of parish apostolates for children, teens and adults. An innovative program called Landings provides a supportive environment for fallen-away Catholics returning to the faith. Teen programs include a Sunday evening Mass, catechetics, social activities and sports.
A perpetual adoration chapel, where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed ’round the clock, is the heart of all parish activity, Father Illo says.
“Father Illo has brought new life to the parish,” says Laura Harker, who has been in the parish for 12 years with her husband and their four children. “We've been on two World Youth Day trips with him, to Rome in 2000 and Toronto in 2002. One minute he's playing Frisbee with the high-school students, and the next moment he's offering Mass in the catacombs.”
Father Illo was born in the Bronx, N.Y., and grew up there and in New Jersey and rural Pennsylvania. He almost didn't make it to the priest-hood. Through high school and college, “I felt sure I was called to marriage and raising a large family,” he recalls.
After graduating from Penn State University, he worked for a year at Ignatius Press in San Francisco, where he met Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio, who said Father Illo had a vocation to the diocesan priesthood. Not sure, the future priest moved to England to get a master's degree at Oxford University. But before starting classes, he embarked on a 50-day pilgrimage that included Paris, Rome and Jerusalem.
“I heard a loud call and promised God to enter the seminary the next fall,” he says.
He spent time with a religious community before applying to the Diocese of Stockton, Calif., where he was ordained in 1991. He was the diocesan vocations director for three years before being appointed pastor of St. Joseph's in 2000.
Wilma Cabacungan joined the parish in 1970, when Mass was offered in an all-purpose building and parishioners sat on folding chairs. She says that, when Father Illo arrived, “he called us all into prayer, and he consecrated the parish to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”
One of Father Illo's dreams is to have a parish school with nuns teaching. Until that time, he oversees a religious-education program with more than 900 students and 140 volunteer catechists.
Dino Durando, director of the program, calls Father Illo “a great mentor” who visits classes regularly and started a Eucharistic-adoration program for children. “His fidelity — not only to Church teaching but also to the heart of the New Evangelization — makes it possible to be joyful even in the toughest of times.”
Stephen Vincent is based in Wallingford, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Stephen Vincent ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Natural Family Planning DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:Family Matters
My husband is a good Christian man but not Catholic. We agree on limiting the size of our family for now, but he's annoyed with my desire to use natural family planning. He sees it as a great inconvenience and is not moved at all by it as a teaching of the Church. How can I get him to come around?
This could be an excellent opportunity to awaken in your husband an appreciation for the Catholic Church. We know it might sound odd — this teaching is widely unpopular and requires personal sacrifice. However, we've witnessed time and again that one of the truly remarkable things about the Church's teaching in this area is how it can transform attitudes once put into practice.
He might be persuaded to give natural family planning a try for solid reasons that are not theological. In fact, many people who reject contraception in favor of natural family planning do so for reasons that have nothing to do with the Church's teaching, at least initially.
Appeal to your husband's love and care for your well-being. One of the key distinctions between natural family planning and artificial contraception is the impact upon a woman's body. Simply put, any kind of chemical birth control or surgical sterilization procedure carries significant risks of side effects and complications. Surely your husband would not want you to be subject to such risks if they were avoidable? Visit www.onemoresoul. com for a wide array of resources to explain the medical implications of using artificial methods.
Natural family planning, on the other hand, carries no medical risks. Since natural family planning involves only the observance of bodily signs of fertility, no side effects are possible. The couple simply acts in harmony with how the body is designed rather than uses artificial means to interrupt or thwart the natural processes of the body.
Perhaps you can put it to your husband this way: Would he rather you use a method that allows your body to function normally, or would he rather you take powerful chemicals that force the body to cease functioning how it was designed to function? We know many husbands who are not religious men at all who happily use natural family planning for this very simple reason: They care about the health of their wives.
If your husband is a devout Christian, we assume he is pro-life. He might not be aware of the abortifacient possibilities of chemical birth control methods. Again, see onemoresoul.com or ccli.org for more detailed information for him to read.
Finally, emphasize the opportunity natural family planning presents to learn and appreciate exactly how your body works. This, combined with the fact that you will be regularly communicating about whether the time is right for another child, will lead to a deepening of your marital relationship. The beautiful paradox of natural family planning is that periodic abstinence draws couples closer together. Of course, it isn't easy, but no worthwhile sacrifice ever is.
One nifty side effect of using natural family planning is its potential to lead your husband to a curiosity about the Catholic Church. If he discovers that the Church is actually onto something good here, maybe there's something to the rest of it after all.
The McDonalds are family life directors for the Archdiocese of
Mobile, Alabama.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tom and Caroline Mcdonald ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Prolife Victories DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:Olympian Puts Baby First
On the one hand, she was overjoyed at the news of the new life inside of her. On the other, her hopes for a gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles at this summer's Olympics in Athens, Greece, were over.
“I cannot lie; I considered an abortion,” said Danvers-Smith, who married her coach last November and is now 10 weeks pregnant. She said she is their sole breadwinner and the couple live with her husband's parents. “When my body is my business, then if my body is not functioning, there is no business.”
“But,” she said, “this line from the Scriptures kept coming into my head: ‘For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?’
“For me, the whole wide world was the Olympics. At the same time, I felt I would be losing my soul. It just wouldn't fit well.”
Lawmakers Defend Ban
LIFENEWS.COM, May 27 — The American Center for Law and Justice has filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of 25 members of Congress in an effort to defend the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act from lawsuits seeking to overturn it.
In the brief filed May 27, members of Congress called on a federal district court in New York to uphold the constitutionality of the ban, LifeNews.com reported.
“Absent strong legal barriers and vigorous societal condemnation, partial-birth procedures open the way to legal infanticide,” the brief states.
The U.S. district court judge presiding over the case has scheduled closing arguments for June 22.
Display Sparks Debate
WISH-TV (Indianapolis), May 27 — A pro-life display in central Indiana is causing quite a controversy.
On “a patch of nicely mowed grass” sit 240 small white crosses in 15 rows, the television station reported. The crosses are part of a display sponsored by the Decatur County Right to Life group and represent the number of abortions that happen in Indiana every week. The display's location, however, is on the lawn of the Decatur County Courthouse.
While the Indiana Civil Liberties Union said other groups should also have a right to put on a display there, some residents supported it. According to one: “It's a good central location that people are going to be driving by here.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, JUNE 13
Secret Aircraft of World War II
History Channel, 6 p.m.
These three hour-long programs highlight the most advanced secret concepts of military aircraft designers in Germany (6 p.m.), Japan (8 p.m.) and the United States and Great Britain (9 p.m.), including rocket, jet and vertical takeoff planes. Advisory: At 7 p.m., a poorly scheduled unrelated show splits up these military history programs for an hour.
SUNDAY, JUNE 13
Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt
Discovery Channel, 10 p.m.
This special singles out Egypt's greatest monuments and examines what is known about their builders.
MONDAY, JUNE 14
The Real West
History Channel, 7 a.m.
All those Wild West movies and TV shows about rancher-homesteader range wars have a basis in fact. This program looks into the Johnson County War in Wyoming in 1892.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16
Great Performances
PBS, 9:30 p.m.
At 9:30 p.m., in “Keeping Score: MTT on Music: The Making of a Performance,” conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and individual members of the San Francisco Symphony escort us through the four movements of Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony. At 10:30 p.m., they perform the entire piece without interruption.
THURSDAY, JUNE 17
Frontline: The Plea
PBS, 9 p.m.
Today, more than 95% of criminal cases never go to a jury; they are settled in cost-cutting plea bargains, in which a defendant pleads guilty to a lesser charge and receives a lesser sentence. Some observers believe this system could lead innocent defendants to plead guilty to avoid possible conviction by a judge or jury on a more serious charge.
FRIDAY, JUNE 18
Staying at a Lighthouse
PBS, check local listings
This show visits California, Lake Michigan, New England and Oregon lighthouses that accept overnight guests.
SATURDAY, JUNE 19
The New G.I.R.M.
EWTN, 8 p.m.
This new 60-minute special on the Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani, or General Instruction of the Roman Missal, features an introduction by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb., and an interview with Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
SATURDAY, JUNE 19
Sleep: How to Get the Rest of Your Life
ABC, 10 p.m.
Johnson & Johnson is the sponsor and Dr. Nancy Snyderman the host of this hour-long look at sleep difficulties and disorders and how to handle them. Two families will receive “sleep makeovers” from experts. Viewers can use Enhanced TV to interact live with the show via their wireless phones or Internet-connected PCs.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daniel J. Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Harry Days Are Here Again DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:In his first two years at Hogwarts School of
Wizardry and Witchcraft, J.K. Rowling's boy wizard learned to use a magic wand like Glinda the good witch, fly a broomstick like Glinda's evil counterpart of the West (or like Wendy the Good Little Witch), generate light from the tip of his wand like Gandalf the Grey (whose implement of choice was a staff) and use various magical formulae that brought about their results as mechanically as the spells of Cinderella's fairy godmother (“But the thingamabob that does the job is bibbidi-bobbidi-boo”).
Gratifyingly absent from Harry's course of study in fantasy magic was anything notably reminiscent of real-world modern-day occult practice — no séances, no rituals, no Wiccan practices, no crystals or charms.
Now in his third year at Hog-warts, Harry finally has a course involving a pursuit specifically forbidden by the Catechism of the Catholic Church: divination. Under the tutelage of dotty Professor Trelawney (Emma Thompson), Harry peers at tea leaves and gazes into a crystal ball.
This problematic element in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is partly though not entirely mitigated by the fact that Trelawney is depicted as ridiculous and her art as highly suspect — in marked contrast to the more reliable disciplines of other faculty members (a fact emphasized even more pointedly in the book, in which Dumb-ledore comments that he can recall only one time Trelawney ever got anything right).
Trelawney might be best taken as a satire of divination, but still to associate such practices as fortune-telling, astrology and the like with the harmless make-believe of hippogrifs and invisibility cloaks would be both wrong and potentially dangerous. (For more on the moral issues of magic in the Harry Potter stories and in fiction generally, see my article “Harry Potter vs. Gandalf” at DecentFilms.com.)
As entertainment, many fans consider Rowling's third excursion into Harry Potter's world the best of Harry's adventures to date. The film version, directed by Harry Potter newcomer Alfonso Cuarón (A Little Princess) after two-time Harry Potter director Chris Columbus stepped aside, has the makings of the most entertaining of the three films so far. Where Columbus was content to reverently visualize his source material, Cuarón successfully imagines it as a movie.
The first two films were slack at times; here the story is taut and well-paced. The three leads, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione) and Rupert Grint (Ron), inhabit their characters more comfortably and convincingly than ever. Perhaps they're simply growing into the roles or perhaps credit is due to Cuarón for eliciting these performances.
There's a sense, though, in which The Prisoner of Azkaban is a victim of its own success. Where its predecessors felt a bit padded and over-long, this one feels incomplete and overly edited. If the first two films could easily have been tightened up by a half-hour or so, Prisoner left me feeling for the first time as if the story could benefit from an “extended edition” DVD, as with the Lord of the Rings films.
This isn't just because Cuarón has turned the longest of the first three books into the shortest of the first three movies. Rather, it's because important elements included in the films no longer totally make sense, or have the necessary significance, in the absence of what the film doesn't tell us or show us.
For example, Harry, Hermione and Ron visit a rundown cabin called the Shrieking Shack, but we're never told why it's called that, nor what connection it has to events or characters in the story. A delightful artifact called the Marauder's Map is introduced, and one character displays a surprising knowledge of its workings, but its history and connections to the characters and story are likewise left unexplained.
Two characters turn out to have a talent for a certain kind of transformation, and a third character also has a transformation issue, but once again the connections, the history, the relationships aren't clarified. A fourth character, present only in spirit, is never explicitly connected either to the transformation theme or to a key plot point toward the end of the book — which leaves that plot point without any explanatory context at all.
In the book, these are all key plot points. Obviously the film can't do everything the book does, but at least whatever it does do, it should make sense of. Oddly, The Prisoner of Azkaban is the only film so far not to feature a dénouement wrap-up speech from Headmaster Dumb-ledore (Michael Gambon, more than ably replacing the late Richard Harris). Two or three minutes of Dumb-ledore explaining the finer points of the plot to Harry and/or Ron as well as the audience would have gone a long way.
Even so, taken on its own terms, The Prisoner of Azkaban probably remains the most entertaining of the three films, despite its drawbacks. It might resemble a jigsaw puzzle with about a fifth of the pieces missing, but the resulting picture, though incomplete, is richer and more pleasing than the more nearly complete pictures represented by the first two films.
Creature effects this time out carry more of an imaginative and emotional punch. Buckbeak the hippogrif, a computer-graphic imagery horse-griffin hybrid, has far more character and presence than Fawkes the phoenix from The Chamber of Secrets or the Cerberus-like three-headed dog from The Sorcerer's Stone. And neither the basilisk nor the troll from earlier films holds a candle to the wraithlike, hooded Dementors, truly creepy creations that hold up surprisingly well so soon after Peter Jackson's terrifying Nazgûl.
One creature effect, unfortunately, isn't nearly as impressive or dynamic as it should have been. At a key crisis one of the heroes casts a spell that involves the appearance of an animal, but because the animal's significance is never clarified and the animal itself doesn't actually do anything, it's almost a throwaway effect.
This is especially unfortunate because this creature is a sort of icon of goodness opposed to the Dementors, in much the same way as Fawkes the phoenix was an icon of goodness opposed to the basilisk in The Chamber of Secret s. And, much like Fawkes, this creature never matches the impact created by its own opposition. The icons of goodness just aren't as impressive as their evil counterparts.
Magic isn't the only morally problematic issue. Harry's patterns of reckless rule breaking and his near inability to turn to adult authority such as Dumbledore when such help is obviously needed are ongoing problems.
On the other hand, as Christian critic Peter Chattaway points out, The Prisoner of Azkaban also gives Harry his first meaningful relationship with a sympathetic adult, as well as an important emotional connection with another surprisingly sympathetic adult. As Harry grows up, it's nice to see the stories growing up in certain ways, too.
Steven D. Greydanus, editor and chief critic of DecentFilms.com, writes from
Bloomfield, New Jersey.
----- EXCERPT: Third time's a charm? Here's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:Miracle (2003)
Whether or not you're a hockey fan, whether or not you remember the turbulent era in which the 1980 Winter Olympics “Miracle on Ice” occurred, Miracle will make you want to stand up and cheer. The bare facts are enough: A tough coach forges a team of raw American college hockey players into an upstart Olympic team that goes up against the seasoned, indomitable Soviet squad and pulls off the upset of the century.
Kurt Russell anchors the film with an expertly focused performance as NCAA coach and former Olympian Herb Brooks. Brooks isn't a traditional inspiring leader or even entirely likeable. What he is is the guy who can train these recruits to skate blade to blade with the best team in the world.
Miracle is about sacrifice, team-work and achievement. It's the best sort of true story, a story so striking and satisfying that it could only happen in real life. As sportscaster Al Michaels put it at the medal ceremony, “No scriptwriter would ever dare.”
Content advisory: Recurring sports roughness and an on-ice brawl; minor profanity and a crass expression.
Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Riveting, downbeat and full of surprises, John Huston's Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a gripping adventure and a smart morality tale about gold, greed, guns and guile. Humphrey Bogart gives what might be his finest and most startling performance as a down-andout American in Mexico suffering from a lack of options and moral fiber. Equally splendid is the director's aging father, Walter Huston, as an eccentric but canny and tough old prospector.
Part of what makes the film so compelling is its avoidance of the obvious or heavy-handed. When we meet Fred C. Dobbs (Bogart), he's neither particularly honorable nor particularly dishonorable. In one scene he mistreats a young beggar, but later when he gets the better of a shady operator who owes him a week's wages, he forcibly takes only what the man owes him and no more.
The film has the subtlety to avoid implying that self-interest is always ultimately the bottom line. An unforgettable, cathartic experience.
Content advisory: Sustained menace and sometimes deadly violence. Teens and up.
Stagecoach (1939)
Two notable Westerns were released in 1939 that transcended the B-movie status that had defined that genre for a decade or more. One did so through satire: Destry Rides Again, starring Jimmy Stewart, looked back on the clichés and simplistic situations of the Westerns of the 1930s with a comic wink. But the other, John Ford's Stagecoach, went beyond those clichés, reinventing the Western in a more serious form and giving it new life for decades to come.
Stagecoach isn't the greatest Western of all time, but it's been called the first great Western. Instead of rote hero-villain conflict, Stagecoach emphasizes characterization, social commentary and moral drama. By throwing together nine characters representing a cross section of social classes and types into a stagecoach out in the vast wilderness of Monument Valley, the film explores themes of discrimination and hypocrisy.
Stagecoach gave the Western one of its great directors, Ford, and its most iconic star, John Wayne — a team that would go on to make some of the genre's classics. One of the 15 films on the Vatican film list in the Art category.
Content advisory: Sustained menace and sometimes deadly violence; an obliquely identified woman of ill repute. Teens and up.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Corpus Christi All Year 'Round DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:LIFE FOR THE WORLD: A WAY OF EUCHARISTIC ADORATION FOR TODAY
by Sister Marie Paul Curley, FSP Pauline, 2003 213 pages, $12.95
To order: (800) 876-4463 or www.pauline.org
The June 13 feast of Corpus Christi — especially if its observance includes such solemn touches as a procession of the Blessed Sacrament, Benediction at three altars and the singing of the Latin Eucharistic hymns of St. Thomas Aquinas — is a day when it is easy to stir the Catholic heart with love for Christ in the Sacred Host.
Those who know this love, even if only from making occasional “visits” before the tabernacle or monstrance, also know it's not always easy to find the words and sentiments for personal prayer and meditation in these moments.
Here's help from Sister Marie Paul Curley, a member of the Daughters of St. Paul, who draws from her religious congregation's markedly Eucharistic spirituality. The book includes 12 holy hours organized around the person of Jesus as he is encountered in Scripture. These are complimented by a generous serving of traditional and contemporary Eucharistic prayers.
The Pauline organization and approach to Eucharistic worship can become a permanent aid, especially for those who, through adoration, attempt to live Corpus Christi, the June 18 feast of the Lord's Body and Blood, every day.
The book is centered on the spirituality and insights of Father James Alberione, an Italian priest beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003. Before he died in 1971 at age 87, Father Alberione founded the Daughters of St. Paul and four other active religious congregations that are dedicated primarily to the Catholic apostolate of mass communications. For a man born in 1884, this was certainly a modern, forward-looking apostolate that demanded intense activity, presumably leaving only little time for prayer.
On the contrary, he would typically spend a total of four to five hours in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament each day. Sister Marie Paul describes Blessed Alberione's method of adoration as “easy to use and particularly relevant for today in its rich use of Scripture, its flexibility and its holistic approach.”
Blessed Alberione explained that “frequent encounters and familiar conversation with Jesus produce friendship, resemblance and identity of thought, of feeling and of willing with Jesus.”
Deeply devoted to St. Paul, Blessed Alberione focused on the apostle's many statements that summarize what it means to have an all-consuming relationship with Christ, such as “for me, to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21).
“The heart of Alberione's Pauline spirituality can be summed up,” Sister Marie Paul says, “in this one phrase, Jesus Master, Way, Truth and Life.” By means of it, “Jesus profoundly influences anyone who encounters him.”
Consistent with these themes, the structure of the Pauline hour follows the threefold definition that Jesus gave himself — as Way, Truth and Life — and is divided into three corresponding “moments” or parts.
This simple structure, while it can only be summarized here, may be employed by anyone, beginner or veteran. I prayed a number of the hours in the book and found the Pauline approach and themes enriching and helpful.
In fact, it is an excellent model that could be followed by enthusiasts of other schools of meditation and of Eucharistic spirituality. Saints and founders from Francis of Assisi to Alphonsus Liguori to Teresa of Calcutta have likewise drawn close to the tabernacle and have urged their followers to do likewise.
Their eloquent words and insights could be used, for example, to model a Franciscan or Salesian holy hour — to the great benefit of those who wish to celebrate Corpus Christi as often as possible.
Joseph Cullen writes from Floral Park, New York.
----- EXCERPT: Summer Reading ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Cullen ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: A Snake-Oil Salesman Gets His Due DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:DE-CODING DA VINCI: THE FACTS BEHIND THE FICTION OF THE DA VINCI CODE
by Amy Welborn Our Sunday Visitor, 2004 124 pages, $9.95
To order: (800) 348-2440 or www.osv.com
If ever a best seller demanded to be dissected and exposed as nonsense, it is Dan Brown's mystery-thriller The Da Vinci Code. Published more than a year ago, it continues to dominate the sales charts, residing high on the New York Times fiction list and selling 7 million copies in its first year. One factor for the book's stunning success — a big-budget Ron Howard movie is in the works — is its anti-Catholic historical revisionism, which it wraps in a declaration of fact and daring research.
This latter fallacy has been promoted by Brown and supported by many book reviewers and entertainment critics. Some have even labeled The Da Vinci Code a masterpiece and an exemplary work of popular scholarship.
Lately the cacophony of gullibility has been met by a number of strong rebuttals, including, interestingly enough, from a number by evangelical Protestants (some of whom otherwise might be all for a best-selling work of anti-Catholic revisionism). And now Catholic author, apologist and web logger extraordinaire Amy Welborn has weighed in, producing a concise critique that packs a biting, knowledgeable punch.
Welborn wrote one of the first negative reviews of Brown's novel last year and has followed its success and impact closely ever since. An insightful observer of popular culture, she writes: “I'm convinced that the reason so many of us have embraced the claims of The Da Vinci Code with such credulity is because we've never seriously tried to get to know Jesus.” What has happened, she notes, is that “we've absorbed the notion, so common in our culture, that it's all a matter of opinion, anyway, with no sure truth at the heart of it.”
The “it” is Christianity, so brazenly attacked by Brown via his fictional characters. These attacks include the claims that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, that prior to 325 A.D. no one believed that Jesus was divine, that Jesus was a mere mortal prophet and that the “myth” of his divinity was concocted by Emperor Constantine as a means of solidifying the power of “the Vatican.” Woven throughout are themes and beliefs taken from radical feminism, occult sources and esoteric religious systems.
Welborn addresses these major issues with keen brevity, providing clear refutations while never oversimplifying complex historical events and religious beliefs. She quickly goes to the heart of each issue and makes points that should give pause to even the most ardent fans of the novel. Responding to Brown's claims about the “real” Jesus, Welborn states: “In The Da Vinci Code, Brown doesn't once cite from any book of the New Testament as he discusses Jesus’ identity. Not once.”
In another section, noting that Brown's continual reference to Leonardo as “Da Vinci” is incorrect, she explains that “da Vinci” means “of Vinci,” a small town in Italy.
“Someone claiming to have expertise in art and who continually refers to him as ‘Da Vinci’ is just as credible as a supposed religion expert calling Jesus ‘of Nazareth,’” she writes. Here she refers to Brown's insistence that his claims about Leonardo are well researched and bolstered by reputable scholarship. As Welborn shows, no scholar would take seriously most, if any, of Brown's claims — not just about Leonardo but about early Christianity, the medieval era and just about everything else contained in the novel.
“It's just fiction!” is a common reply to rebuttals such as De-Coding Da Vinci. But as Welborn observes, fiction can shape minds and influence hearts, and The Da Vinci Code is undoubtedly doing both. It needs to be taken seriously because tens of thousands of readers are taking it seriously, allowing it to inform their beliefs about a host of vital topics. And many of those readers are Catholics, usually poorly catechized and uncertain about even the most basic tenets of their own faith.
In de-coding The Da Vinci Code, Welborn ably shows that not only does truth exist but that Catholics have nothing to fear from the truth or from bigoted, nonsensical fiction.
Carl E. Olson is co-author, with Sandra Miesel, of Ignatius Press’ forthcoming The Da Vinci Hoax
(www.davincihoax.com).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Carl E. Olson ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Oh, and About Those Gates . . . DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:THE DECLINE & FALL OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN AMERICA
by David Carlin Sophia, 2003
432 pages, $24.95
To order: (800) 888-9344 or www.sophiainstitute.com
As a child I learned in my Southern Baptist Sunday school that the King James Bible contains 365 passages that say “fear not.” When I converted to the Catholic faith and began reading the deuterocanonical books as something besides literature, I was comforted by further evidence of God's faithfulness during times that strike fear in human hearts. And, when I began worrying that Christianity in toto might be on slippery skids, I grabbed hold of Christ's promise in Matthew 16:18: “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”
David Carlin believes that about the gates of hell. What he does not believe is that the Catholic Church in America will necessarily be a part of the Church that survives the hellish onslaught. Yes, Carlin is pessimistic, and while he obviously hopes The Decline & Fall of the Catholic Church in America will be a clarion call, even a manifesto, for American Catholics, he paints a frightening picture.
Serious Catholics must understand precisely how our Church got into this precarious situation. Carlin presents a compelling analysis. He attributes the decline to the “perfect storm” spawned in the 1960s by the collision of three powerful social forces: the emergence of Catholics from cultural “ghettos” into the broader culture, changes resulting from Vatican II and the plummeting of American culture into anti-authoritarian secularism. “Any one of these factors operating all by itself would have had a significant impact,” he writes. “The convergence of all three at a single historical moment … was explosive.”
Carlin, a professor of philosophy and sociology at the Community College of Rhode Island, served as a Democratic state senator and has published more than 100 articles on social, political, cultural and religious topics. About this book he writes: “I have tried to write a piece of pure sociology. … It is not, however, a piece of empirical sociology; that is to say, I have done no original research nor uncovered any facts that are not commonly known to anyone familiar with the Church in the United States.”
Carlin's readable style makes delving into the historical and sociological foundations a pleasure, but you'll need to take notes as you read — the lack of an index is a major inconvenience. His keen insights concerning “liberal” and “conservative” Catholics are particularly intriguing, as are explanations of the vocations and leadership crises and his comments about the priest sex scandals and the trivialization of the liturgy.
There are glimmers of optimism amid the doom and gloom, such as Carlin's conviction that some Catholics will sustain the true Catholic faith in 21st-century America, “just as John Henry Newman was able to do it in the midst of very modern 19th-century England.” Carlin cautions: “It is individual human beings, individual members of the institution, who must amend the life of an institution if it is to be amended at all. And there is always the danger that individuals who are responsible for an institution … will fail to act as they should act.”
Then he adds that “amending a life, whether individual or institutional, is not always just a matter of will; it is also a matter of knowledge.” Decline & Fall is a good place to bone up on the facts needed by every Catholic who is willing to resist the advance of the gates of hell in America.
Ann Applegarth writes from Roswell, New Mexico.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ann Applegarth ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 06/13/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 13-19, 2004 ----- BODY:Hand Delivery
Calligrapher Donald Jackson and Brother Dietrich Rein-hart, president of St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn., presented the work to the Holy Father at his weekly general audience. The project, headed by Jackson, aims to create a Bible copied and illustrated entirely by hand, the St. Cloud Times reported. It is believed to be the first such project in 500 years.
The $4 million project was commissioned by St. John's. Its organizers hope to attract scholars worldwide to the school.
Home on the Range
The town of Green River has beautiful landscapes, is close to the Green River and possesses diverse wildlife, according to the town newspaper.
The committee exploring sites for the new school is looking for a rural place that could cultivate a sense of community and is close to public lands for nature studies. The site selection committee said it plans to narrow the shor t list of sites by July 1.
College in High School
PR NEWSWIRE, May 27 — “Things can only get better.” So said the leaders of Dayton Early College Academy, housed on the Marianist-run University of Dayton, Ohio, in a statement released after completion of the school's first year.
The academy offers the oppor tunity for students to take college classes at the university and at a nearby community college, according to PR Newswire. Of the academy's 89 ninth-graders, 19 have already successfully taken college classes.
The academy, only one of 19 such schools that opened nationwide last fall, targets first-generation college students from low-income areas who might not other wise consider attending college.
Bless Him, Father
During his keynote graduation address, Russer t described an encounter with Pope John Paul II in 1985. When asking the Holy Father to appear on the “Today” show, Russert forgot his concerns about TV ratings and considered the prospect of salvation instead: “You heard this tough, no-nonsense hard-hitting moderator of ‘Meet the Press’ begin by saying, ‘Bless me Father!’”
Coach Dies
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 17 — A former football coach at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., whose firing last fall led to accusations of discrimination by the college — the coach was confined to a wheelchair — has died at age 48.
Dan Allen announced last August that he suffered from multiple chemical sensitivity. The illness prevented his mobility from the neck down, and he coached all of last year from a wheelchair, the Associated Press reported. He was fired after a 1-11 season but remained employed by the college.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Humor and Guts DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — He had a sense of humor and a disregard for danger. That's how friends and family sum up a Catholic priest who has become the first chaplain wounded in Iraq. That was while the priest was in Bosnia.
Father Timothy Vakoc (pronounced Va-KICH) was critically wounded by a roadside bomb May 30 while returning to base after celebrating Sunday Mass for soldiers in the field. It was the 12th anniversary of his ordination.
“He took the brunt of the blast,” his brother Jeff told the Register.
The blast caused Father Vakoc to lose his left eye. He sustained trauma to the brain, has paralysis on his right side and, as the Register went to press, was fighting a bacterial meningitis infection common among soldiers injured in Iraq.
After being treated at an Army field hospital in Baghdad, he was evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. On June 2, he was transported to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
According to his sister, Anita Brand, his condition is “critical, guarded, stable and hopeful.” Doctors have been keeping him in a chemically induced coma to allow his brain to heal.
Father Vakoc felt Iraq was “where he needed to go,” said his brother, Jeff. “He felt it was God's will and was positive about what the military was accomplishing in Iraq.”
Father Vakoc once told his sister, “The safest place for me to be is in the center of God's will.”
The Register interviewed Father Vakoc shortly before he was injured. That interview, in which he described his “ministry of intentional presence” was widely quoted after the attack.
“The bottom line in helping these soldiers,” he said in the e-mail interview, “is to be present to them and walk with them. I prayed with the soldiers, I prayed for the soldiers who died, I brought the sacraments of the Church and the light and love of Christ into the darkness of the situations.”
The family said what they need most now is prayers. “We're very blessed. Everyone has a prayer chain going for Tim,” Jeff added. “My hope is that he comes back and is at least able to function.”
Disarming Faith
His colleagues and parishioners describe Father Vakoc as “very down to earth.”
“He's a man with no guile,” Father John Echert said. “He worked hard at preparing his sermons and people felt very comfortable with him.”
Polly and David Novack agreed. They were married by Father Vakoc in 1995. She commented on Father Vakoc's honesty and humor.
“If he felt you should get your life in order, he would say so,” Polly Novack said. “When I discovered I was pregnant with my third child, I was very upset. Father Vakoc told me, ‘God must think you're a good parent. Thank God for it.’”
She said Father Vakoc also had a knack for bringing humor to tough situations.
Capt. Felix Acosta of the 416th Civil Affairs Battalion in Mosul confirmed that.
Father Vakoc forgot to bring holy water to this year's Easter Mass, so he took a bottle of drinking water soldiers carry around, blessed it and made “what he thought was a small opening on the cap,” Acosta recalled. “Boy, we got drenched.”
Father Francis Kittock supervised Father Vakoc's first assignment at St. Charles Borromeo Church between 1992 and 1993.
“He was a free-spirited person who loved people,” said Father Kittock, now retired. “He usually packed too much into one day and had a reputation for being late, but he always made it. He could travel anywhere, anyplace, anytime and feel at home, so he found the right niche when he went into the Army.”
One of Father Vakoc's superior officers said he was impressed by the priest's dedication to serving God and his fellow soldiers.
“The fact that he was returning from service for our soldiers shows that he never let the dangers of our battlefield prevent him from serving,” said Lt. Col. Dennis Thompson with the 296th Brigade Support Battalion stationed in Mosul.
Thompson explained that Father Vakoc's attempt to provide Mass to all the soldiers in the Stryker Brigade was most challenging.
“Our soldiers are often spread out in numerous places over an area the size of Connecticut, always through hostile territory,” Thompson said. “None of this prevented Father Tim from being there for the soldier. Wherever we went, Father Tim would conduct a Mass, often for only two or three soldiers who were located on remote outposts.”
A 1978 graduate of Minneapolis’ Benilde-St. Margaret's Catholic School and a graduate of St. Cloud State University, Father Vakoc was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis in 1992. He first served as associate pastor at St. Charles Borromeo Church in St. Anthony, Minn., and later as pastor at St. John Neumann in Eagan, Minn., from 1993 to 1996. He left that post to join the Army.
Father Vakoc served a three-anda-half-year assignment at Fort Carson, Colo., before being assigned as chaplain for the 44th Corps Support Battalion from Fort Lewis, Wash. The 44th provides logistical support to the Fort Lewis-based units working across northern Iraq, including the Task Force Olympia headquarters and the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, the Army's first Stryker vehicle brigade. Father Vakoc was deployed to Iraq last November.
At War, At Ease
Col. Thompson recalled Father Vakoc's service when their unit was in a particularly tight spot.
While returning to home base from one of their visits, Thompson's vehicle broke down. Unable to repair the vehicle, the convoy was forced to tow it the rest of the way.
“As we entered the outskirts of Mosul, one of our vehicles was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade,” Thompson said. “We had to stop, treat casualties and secure our convoy.”
Father Vakoc “immediately responded and cared for the casualties and made sure no one else was hurt,” Thompson said. “We eventually made it home in a safe manner. As we dropped him off he quipped that he appreciated the exciting trip and was looking forward to the next one.”
Hundreds of well-wishers — including priests and religious, family and friends from around the world — have left messages and prayers for Father Vakoc. His sister, Anita, has posted updates regarding his condition on a Website that keeps family and friends informed of the progress of hospital patients (www.caringbridge.com/mn/timvakoc).
Whether it's fellow soldiers, fellow priests or parishioners, Father Vakoc has always made an impact on those he meets.
In November 2002, shortly after the birth of their third child, the Novacks had Father Vakoc over for breakfast. The priest was on leave at the time.
“Our son Charlie was then 3 years old,” Polly Novack said. When she recently told Charlie that Father Vakoc had had an accident, Charlie said, “He's the man that made you laugh and cry when you told him goodbye.”
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: Stories abound about injured priest hero ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Santorum Defends Specter Campaign DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Pro-lifers are bracing for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to be chaired next year by a pro-abortion senator with a history of opposing pro-life judicial nominees.
That scenario will come to pass if Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., wins reelection and Republicans hold on to their majority in the Senate.
Specter played a crucial role in killing the nomination of constitutionalist Robert Bork to the Supreme Court during the Reagan administration, thus helping to keep the legacy of Roe v. Wade.
Things could have been different. Specter, who has threatened to vote against two pro-life Catholic judicial nominees during this presidential administration, narrowly won a primary victory April 27 over the pro-life challenger, Rep. Pat Toomey. R-Pa.
Pro-lifers are wondering how Catholic pro-life U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. — and President Bush — could go to bat for Specter, possibly giving Santorum's fellow Pennsylvania Republican the edge.
The Register asked Santorum about that. Why did he campaign vigorously for Specter? Couldn't he have simply endorsed him, if party loyalty demanded that?
Santorum said he made a prudential judgment. He argued that picking up more pro-life Republicans in states with no incumbents running rather than trying to pick up another pro-life Republican in Pennsylvania without the advantage of incumbency was a better use of the GOP's efforts and funds.
“I judged based on all the facts and circumstances what would benefit the causes I believe in the most,” Santorum said.
“My feeling was very strongly that, given all the contested races and open seats we were facing in the U.S. Senate,” said Santorum, “having an open seat in Pennsylvania to contend with — in a very expensive state with a Democratic governor and where we lost three out of four judicial elections last year, having that particularly in a key presidential state where the president of the United States was going to be running on that ballot and would need support — that this was not a good allocation of our resources. It would have drawn resources from other states to pick up seats.”
A Pro-Life Party
Contrary to those who insist pro-life challengers such as Toomey must always be supported in order to advance the pro-life agenda, Santorum argued for a more sophisticated approach based on maintaining the pro-life political party's majority status.
“How can we be in the best position to confirm judges who I believe will carry out the laws in a manner consistent with my philosophy? Where are we going to get enough votes to ensure that Bill Frist is going to be majority leader next year and we have the kind of agenda that is going to move the cause of life forward?” Santorum said he asked himself. Frist is a pro-life senator from Tennessee.
If Democrats — overwhelmingly pro-abortion — retake the Senate, they will choose the majority leader, who has the most influence on the Senate's business, such as whether judicial nominations or pro-life legislation — such as the newly introduced Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act — get floor votes.
Santorum, a party leader as chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, also said pro-lifers should welcome Specter as Judiciary Committee chairman. Specter's chairman-ship “will be a good thing for judicial nominations,” Santorum said.
“First off, he had voted for every single Bush nominee, has voted for every one to come out of committee and he feels very strongly that the committee should not be the place where judicial nominations die,” he said. “He's been very aggressive, and I would argue would be more aggressive than Sen. [Orrin] Hatch [current judiciary committee chairman] has been in moving nominees to the floor.
“So if the concern from the pro-life community is that Specter is pro-choice and therefore he is someone who will block pro-life nominees, I can tell you he has no litmus test for judges. I've worked with him. We have confirmed 20 judges from Pennsylvania, five just recently. I don't know of any of them that were not pro-life.”
Santorum noted that though Specter helped kill Bork's nomination, he was instrumental in getting pro-life Clarence Thomas, a constitutionalist judge — one who believes in making decisions based on the actual wording of the Constitution — confirmed as a Supreme Court justice.
Other pro-life leaders expressed skepticism about the future with Specter. Judie Brown, president of American Life League, said Santorum's support for Specter was “a tragedy.”
“Our loyalty is to the unborn child, not to any party,” Brown said.
She also said that many in the pro-life movement have been too focused on overturning Roe v. Wade and should focus on legislation that can pass Congress with majority votes. The pro-abortion Specter, as judiciary chairman, will decide whether much of that legislation ever receives hearings.
Wendy Wright, senior policy director at Concerned Women for America, said cautiously, “Rather than project doom based on Sen. Specter's history, I would like to be optimistic. I hope he will conduct the business of the Judiciary Committee in an evenhanded manner.”
Changing Hearts
Specter has made public statements that seem to support Santo-rum's contention that Specter favors moving nominees out of committee, pro-life or not.
“It is time for a truce. It is time for an armistice,” Specter says on his Web site. “If a nominee qualifies, he or she ought to be confirmed, regardless of ideology.”
In a July 23, 2003, press release, Specter stated that though he might vote against Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor (a pro-life Catholic) on the Senate floor, he voted for him in committee.
“In voting to send Attorney General Pryor's nomination to the floor, I note that the Constitution provides that confirmations are to be decided by the Senate and not just the Judiciary Committee,” he said.
But the most important key to changing the judiciary's anti-life and pro-homosexual bias is getting Supreme Court justices who will not legislate from the bench. How Specter would treat a constitutionalist Supreme Court nominee in committee is an open question.
“It is obvious that Supreme Court nominations are totally different from lesser federal courts where all agree they are bound by and agree to defer to Supreme Court interpretations,” he said in the press release.
John Miller of National Review Online reported March 26 that Specter might oppose the two most constitutionalist, pro-life justices on the court if Bush chose to elevate one to chief justice, even though Specter fought for one's confirmation.
“Specter still won't commit to voting for Thomas if he were nominated for chief justice,” Miller wrote. “‘I'd want to think about that,’ he says. What about Antonin Scalia for chief justice? ’I'd want to think about that, too.’”
“Getting pro-lifers on the Supreme Court is the most crucial thing,” said Darla St. Martin, associate executive director of National Right to Life. As for Specter, she said, “He's made no commitments to us.”
“We didn't support Specter,” she said. “We supported Toomey, of course.”
For Santorum, there is an activity that is more important, ultimately, than stumping for one candidate or another: changing hearts and minds.
“I would encourage the faith leaders in our country to continue to teach,” he said. “I think there are far too many churches, particularly Catholic churches, that are not teaching the faith and integral parts of the faith having to do with abortion. … The more faithful to the teachings of the Church Catholics are, the better chance we have to change politicians’ lives and how they feel about this issue.”
Joseph D'Agostino writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph D'Agostino ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Thousands Rally for Cross Against ACLU DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:LOS ANGELES — When Los Angeles County supervisors voted 3-2 to remove a Christian cross from its official seal, they didn't count on a Jewish radio personality taking up the symbol's cause.
But on one day's notice — and on a workday — thousands of people, Christians and otherwise, heeded the call of talk-show host Dennis Prager to show their support for the cross, a symbol of California's Christian heritage.
While 700 people packed a county supervisors hearing on the matter June 8 at the county hall of administration, more than 1,000 others demonstrated in the normally quiet intersection of Temple and Grand streets outside.
“If it weren't for this cross, I wouldn't have the freedom I have,” said Michael Fruchter, who wore a yarmulke and carried a sign that said “Jews for the Seal.” America, he said, is the “best place for any minority at any time in history.”
The county supervisors voted to remove the cross rather than fight a threatened lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. The situation has focused national attention on the ACLU's so-far quiet campaign to expunge all Christian symbols from civic life around the country.
Earlier this year, Redlands, Calif., capitulated to the organization's demands and in early June removed a cross from the city logo. Edmond, Okla., recently lost a protracted court battle and had to do the same. The day before the Los Angeles rally, just after the 60th anniversary of D-Day, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a cross erected in the Mojave Desert by World War I veterans as a war memorial violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
In Los Angeles County, the cross is located in a right-hand panel of the seal and commemorates the Spanish missionaries who came to the region in the 18th century. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors reached a deal with the ACLU to replace the cross with a depiction of a Spanish mission and indigenous people.
But county supervisor Michael Antonovich argued that any depiction of a mission without a cross “is not a mission.”
“If there is a mission,” Prager said during testimony at the supervisors meeting June 8, “it will look like a Taco Bell.”
Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony also pleaded in a letter with the board to reconsider. But the legislative body reaffirmed its decision after the protest, with the same three supervisors voting to remove the symbol.
Another debate was expected June 15 on whether to let voters decide the issue, though County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky demurred, saying if other key issues in American history such as desegregation had been left to the voters, they would have been defeated.
Meanwhile, the ACLU claims it will not try to remove an image of rosary beads surrounding the seal of the City of Los Angeles.
“It's not like the cross on the county seal — that's a universal representation of a religion,” a spokesman for the ACLU told the Los Angeles Daily News. “Looking at the city seal, most people wouldn't even realize it's a rosary there.”
Going to Court
But the county, which tried to avoid a legal battle with the ACLU, now will have to defend its decision in court. The Thomas More Law Center, a national public-interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Mich., filed a suit in federal court seeking to keep the cross because its removal would show hostility to religion.
The basis for the lawsuit is that Christianity is being singled out for “disparate treatment,” said law center attorney Rob Muise, who is in charge of the case.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty offered pro bono legal services to the county if it does not remove the seal and is sued as a result.
“Anyone who thinks the ACLU doesn't have an anti-Christian agenda has been hiding under a rock,” Muise said. “The ACLU wants to remove any public recognition of our Christian history.“
He compared the ACLU's actions to the Nazis, who promptly eliminated “all public symbols of religion” when they invaded Poland in 1939.
Radio host Prager found a more recent comparison, calling the ACLU and the three county supervisors “leftist versions of the Taliban,” the former Muslim rulers of Afghanistan who blew up ancient Buddhist sculptures in that country.
Prager, who studied at Columbia University's Russian Institute, also warned that frequent rewriting of history was a “major characteristic of Soviet and other totalitarian regimes.”
“Los Angeles County is the largest county in America,” he said. “If it allows its past to be expunged by a vote of 3 to 2, America's past is sure to follow. If you want to know what happens after that, ask any student of the Soviet Union.”
The archivist of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Msgr. Francis Weber, agreed.
“The ACLU is anti-God,” Msgr. Weber said, adding that “this is just the beginning.”
Msgr. Weber has written several books on California's Catholic heritage and is director of Mission San Fernando, one of the original Spanish missions in California.
ACLU lawyers did not return the Register's calls for comment; however, a spokesman speaking on condition of anonymity described their rationale this way: “Under the Constitution, the government cannot endorse one religion over another. We sent a letter asking that the cross be replaced so that the county wouldn't be in violation of the U.S. Constitution.”
The Thomas More Center's Muise found such statements ironic. The ACLU is allowing an overtly religious symbol to remain on the seal — Pomona, a Roman agricultural goddess that represented the region's rural and agricultural character when the seal was designed in 1957.
That the ACLU has not sought to have that removed “comes down to their [anti-Christian] agenda,” Muise said.
Despite what Muise called a “flawed jurisprudence” by the courts on issues of religious symbolism, he said he liked his chances.
“I can stand before that court and make a very strong argument,” he said.
The public outcry in Los Angeles gives him hope.
“The ACLU may have misjudged the reaction to this,” he said.
Catholic Vote
One of those who voted to remove the cross was county supervisor Gloria Molina, a Catholic. Hispanics at the rally, many of whom came after hearing of the issue on a local Spanish radio station, carried signs saying “La Cruz, sí; Molina, no” (“The cross, yes; Molina, no”).
Molina was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying the California missions “were built by slaves.”
“There are many people who argue that the missions were not a great part of our history,” Molina said.
Msgr. Weber promptly wrote to her, calling her comments “hurtful, inaccurate and misleading.” He invited her to the San Fernando Mission, where he promised to show her “what the missions are all about.”
Molina's press secretary did not return calls seeking comment.
For now, barring the success of the Thomas More Law Center's suit, the cross will be expunged. But few think it will end there.
Muise went so far as to suggest that neither the crosses in Arlington National Cemetery nor some of the names of places in lands settled by the Spanish — San Francisco, Corpus Christi, Sacramento — were safe.
“Today it's crosses,” Msgr. Weber warned. “Tomorrow it's Christmas.”
Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Bushes Back 'Ethical Science' DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — If some advocates have their way, human embryonic stem-cell research might be swept into greater legislative approval on a deceased president's funeral coattails.
Pro-life president Ronald Reagan's long suffering from Alzheimer's disease is being used to put pressure on President Bush to ease restrictions Bush imposed on taxpayer funding for embryonic stem-cell research. The research requires scientists to destroy human life to research into what some say are future lifesaving therapies.
Pressure had already been mounting on Bush to abandon the restrictions he set in 2001, including a letter sent to him by more than 200 members of the House of Representatives and 58 U.S. senators the day before Reagan died. The congressional letter was released after the former president's death.
In May, former first lady Nancy Reagan — who watched for a decade as her husband suffered from Alzheimer's disease — made a plea for a change in the Bush policy.
In an editorial June 8, The New York Times said it would be a “fitting tribute” to Reagan if Mrs. Reagan continued to speak out. The New York Daily News and the Rocky Mountain News in Denver joined the Times in calling for a relaxation of the Bush policy in the wake of Reagan's death.
But, ironically, said the Washington Post on June 10, stem-cell therapy wouldn't have been much help for Reagan's Alzheimer's disease. Reported the paper: “The infrequently voiced reality, stem cell experts confess, is that, of all the diseases that may someday be cured by embryonic stem cell treatments, Alzheimer's is among the least likely to benefit.”
First lady Laura Bush told Reuters on June 9 that while she admired Nancy Reagan's devotion to her late husband during his battle with Alzheimer's disease, she could not support Nancy Reagan's position.
Laura Bush's father, who also struggled with Alzheimer's, died in 1997.
“There are stem cells to do research on and … we have to be really careful between what we want to do for science and what we should do ethically,” the first lady said. “Stem cell … is certainly one of those issues that we need to treat very carefully.”
Richard Doerflinger, deputy director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the embryonic stem-cell agenda is set by the for-profit biotechnology firms and their allies in the research community and some of them might have more ominous motives.
Embryonic stem cells are of great interest to biotech firms because they are capable of being patented, quantified and sold, he said. And he warned that some researchers want to use embryonic stem cells and cloning to unlock the secrets of early human development, refine methods for human genetic engineering and make the “designer baby” possible. Such technologies could lead to a “brave new world” of manufactured and exploited humanity, he warned, if society does not erect moral barriers.
Doerflinger also said the ground troops for this movement are the dedicated but misinformed members of various patient groups who have been told embryonic stem cells will cure them or their children.
Diabetes Research
Doerflinger singled out the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation for descending on Congress in great numbers to tell members that a failure to destroy more embryos for stem cells will doom their children with diabetes. He said some patient groups believe advocates’ argument that embryonic stem cells are the Holy Grail of medical cures.
Doerflinger said those supporting embryonic stem cell research ignore the substantial evidence of great promise with adult stem cells. That's not surprising, he said.
“Biotech firms and researchers have little to gain from simple surgical procedures for curing patients with their own adult stem cells,” he said.
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation has been in the forefront of the push for more federal funding. William Ahearn, vice president of strategic communications and information technology for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International, said the majority of Americans are advocates for change in the administration's policy.
“[The foundation] is simply reflecting what they are looking for: a chance for science to explore the opportunities stem-cell research may hold to help more than 100 million Americans suffering from a wide range of diseases,” he said.
Ahearn said the foundation hears daily from mothers and fathers of children with diabetes asking, “When will my child be cured?” He believes the solution is to provide scientists with the opportunity to work with more stem-cell lines. He hopes the recent letter from congressmen “will be seen as the latest development in what has become a quickly advancing grass-roots call for a change in policy.”
On its webpage, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation says adult stem cells “may be limited in both their ability to replicate in the laboratory and in the type of tissues they can become.”
Bush Response
White House spokeswoman Maria Tamburri said the Bush administration is pursuing research on adult stem cells. She said the president remains committed to stem-cell research but continues to believe society should not cross a fundamental moral line by funding or encouraging the destruction of human embryos. She said he believes life should not be created simply to destroy it.
During a May 15 commencement speech at Concordia University in Mequon, Wis., the president reiterated his opposition to cloning and the use of embryonic stem cells by saying such procedures are anathema to American ideals.
“Our standards must be high and clear and fixed,” Bush said. “Life is not just a tool or a commodity or a means to other ends. Nothing good or just can be built on the destruction of others.”
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., was to lead a subcommittee hearing June 9 on successes in adult stem-cell research. Like all work in Congress the week leading up to President Reagan's state funeral, the meeting was postponed.
Doerflinger promised that the pro-life secretariat would continue to inform the public on the latest groundbreaking advances in nonembryonic stem cells and working with congressional committees. He said there are too many members of Congress not sufficiently aware of the way morally acceptable avenues are outpacing embryonic stem cells in helping patients.
President Bush ”does not intend to change the policy, and I have no reason to doubt this,” he said. “He believes this debate is not only about the practicalities of cell lines but also about a moral principle.”
Keith Peters writes from Spotsylvania, Virginia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Keith Peters ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Life Father, Like Son DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:Donald D'Amour has a lot to thank his father for this Father's Day. His supermarket chain, for one.
As chief executive officer, D'Amour oversees more than 8,500 employees and a chain of 51 New England Big Y food retail stores. In 2000, D'Amour and his wife, Michele, established the Fides et Ratio Grant Competition for Catholic colleges and universities. They have since donated more than $1.5 million for the purpose of strengthening the Catholic mission at such institutions.
He spoke recently with Register staff writer Tim Drake.
Where did you grow up?
I was raised in Chicopee, Mass., which was heavily French-Canadian. I was the younger of two brothers. My mother's parents came to the United States from Canada before she was born. Ironically, I ended up marrying a French-Canadian, so our children are nearly 100% French.
I benefited from a parochial-school education. The Sisters of the Presentation of Mary taught us English and math in English, and everything else in French.
Not too long ago — about 10 years, I crossed paths with the nun who taught me seventh grade. She was retired, living in Maine and bragged to me how at the age of 84 she was running a library there. I recently received a letter from the Sisters and learned that at the age of 94 she's still alive and kicking, putting together rosaries.
Tell me about your father.
My dad was born in Quebec. He became a U.S. citizen when he was a toddler.
My father was a route salesman for Wonder Bread. In 1936 he was told he was of the wrong religion and nationality to advance in the company, so he borrowed $1,000 from his family and purchased one of the corner grocery stores on his bread route.
Eventually the business grew, and in the early 1940s he invited his kid brother to become his partner. That first store was situated at a point where the roads formed a Y, and that's how the Y Cash Market got its name. In 1952, when they put up their first supermarket, they changed the name to the Big Y.
How did you start out with Big Y?
When I was still in the single digits, I started pushing shopping carts and leveling the bread aisle each afternoon. When I reached the double digits, I would get up at 2 a.m. and go down to the local produce market during the summer. We would bargain with the farmers, leave our trucks there to be loaded and have breakfast, come back for the trucks and deliver the produce.
Did you hope to stay in the family business full time?
No, I didn't want to go into the business. I was bored to tears with stocking shelves and never intended to do it full time. I attended Assumption College in Worcester, Mass., for my undergraduate degree and was exposed to philosophy at the University of Louvain in Belgium. I was planning to become a psychiatrist but was intimidated by the medical school application process, so I went on to the University of Notre Dame for philosophy.
After studying at the Political Science Institute in Munich, Germany, I returned home. In 1968, while I was working on my dissertation, my mom got sick and passed away. I was tired of the academic world and wasn't thrilled with my success at teaching undergraduates, so I decided to get out of the ivory tower. I went home to help take care of my dad and ended up staying there and doing that. I started with the company full time in 1969 and became chief executive officer in 1980.
Do you find it difficult to maintain Catholic values in the business world?
You are who you are and you do what you do with that in mind. The issues we face are nothing but enhanced by the Catholic liberal arts training I had. Running a business means developing and dealing with people. I'm able to do that even though I've never taken an economics course. Plato thought that the best of all worlds would be where philosophers were kings. I'm not a king, just a chief executive officer.
Every week we hold meetings to touch base with our managers. One young mother was explaining to her daughter why she had to leave early for work — she had to prepare for this meeting. The daughter told her mom, “I understand, Mom. You have to go there early because you have to prepare for the supreme ruler of Big Y.”
In 2000 you set aside $1.5 million for the creation of the
Michele had been suggesting that we look into worthy charities to share our good fortune with. The most proximate cause was my acquiring and reading Pope John Paul II's encyclical on faith and reason shortly after it was published in 1998. That got me thinking about what the Pope was talking about.
Having gone to every Catholic school known to man and serving as a trustee at Assumption College put it into context for me. That's where the seed came from to invite some Catholic colleges to a competition that wouldn't be imposing something from the outside but rather enabling the administration and trustees to do something they might not be able to do otherwise.
I had heard for years of people complaining about the preparedness of students and wondered what would happen if Catholic colleges tried to be a bit more aggressive in terms of attracting particular students who could contribute to the mission of a Catholic liberal arts education.
The grant was also based upon my own experience of having visited several Catholic colleges with my five children and seeing how they presented their cases. I found that it wasn't all that successful. There was a glaring disconnect between what the schools proclaim their mission to be and their admission practices. I wondered what would happen if we encouraged Catholic colleges to incorporate their admission programs as part of their mission.
How did you go about choosing the colleges that were invited to apply?
We had $1.5 million to offer, which would mean peanuts to a place like the University of Notre Dame. We had neither the resources nor the hubris to believe we could affect larger institutions, so we preselected 16 smaller schools that we invited to participate. Fourteen of them actually followed through with the application.
What were the goals of the competition?
We had seven concrete goals.
1) encourage a review of mission,
2) reassess admissions practices,
3) encourage a curriculum evaluation,
4) integrate all of the processes and programs institution-wide,
5) support faculty development,
6) reconsider the entire college life experience for students and
7) continue to bring the colleges together to learn from one another.
Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, was the top winner, receiving $600,000. Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, Calif., and Magdalen College in New Hampshire were the runners-up, receiving $300,000. Benedictine College in Atchinson, Kan.; St. Mary's College of Ave Maria University in Michigan; DeSales University in Pennsylvania; and Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in New Hampshire received smaller grants. The fourth of five equal installments will be paid to the schools this fall.
What do you see as the fruits of the competition?
For some of the institutions, the grant saved them years in terms of mission development. Some were in mission drift. Many have changed their admission practices and now require students to write essays. Most of the schools now have a core integrated curriculum.
For Catholic liberal arts colleges to survive, it's not harmful for them to come out of the closet, if you will. It's the only way they will survive. They have to expose students to the Catholic flavor they have to offer.
I'm most proud of how one part of the grant has taken on a life of its own. Each year, a colloquium brings all of the schools together to share problems and solutions. This year's colloquium will be held July 13-15 at Franciscan University of Steubenville.
Tim Drake writes from
St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Where Do Peter's Pence Go? DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:LARGO, Fla. — When he's donated to the Peter's Pence collection in the past, Fred Kunder knew it was for the Holy Father, but he thought his money benefited the Vatican.
“To pay for the upkeep of all the museums and artwork,” said Kunder, a parishioner at St. Jerome Catholic Church in Largo, Fla.
He's half correct. The collection is for the Pope — but it helps him provide aid to the most disadvantaged people throughout the world.
Archbishop John Vlazny of Portland, Ore., likened the collection to a familiar Church appeal.
“Peter's Pence is sort of like the Catholic Charities appeal that most dioceses have for the outreach ministries of the local Church,” said Archbishop Vlazny, the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Economic Concerns of the Holy See, which oversees the Peter's Pence collection in the United States.
“This is for the outreach ministries of the Holy Father,” he said. “He has, as you can imagine, many people that appeal to him for help, especially in Third World countries. This is the money that is provided to him from countries that are more affluent to help him in the name of the Church.”
For instance, the Pope gives the money to bishops whose parishioners live in war-torn areas or who have been through natural disasters, he said.
“It's an important way for us to express our solidarity with the Holy Father in his ministry as the chief shepherd of the Catholic community,” Archbishop Vlazny said. “What's nice about this is when we give these moneys to people, we aren't asking them what church they belong to or if they go to church. We're seeing the face of Christ in the poor, and that's what it's all about.”
Donations to the collection increased to $53 million in 2002, a 2% improvement from the previous year, said Bruce Egnew, an associate general secretary at the bishops’ conference. The figures for 2003 have not been released yet.
Pope John Paul II has been “so present to so many parts of the world by his traveling that it's fully consistent that he would be as present in the charitable acts,” Egnew said.
The collection can be traced back to the ninth century when the King of England collected a penny each from English landowners to financially support the pope. In 1871, Pope Pius IX formally began the collection, which is held every year on the Sunday closest to the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, which occurs June 29. This year the collection will take place the weekend of June 26-27.
One result of the collection was the construction of the Don Orione center in Rome's Monte Mario, which houses disabled pilgrims free of charge. The Pope wanted to help the handicapped visiting Rome have a place to stay, said Bishop Ramon Castro, who was in charge of the collection for three years until he was recently named auxiliary bishop of Yucatan, Mexico.
Bishop Castro said he didn't encourage publicity about the collection when he worked at the Vatican.
“The Holy Father doesn't like to ask for money,” Bishop Castro said. Instead, the Pope preferred that “Providence” provide, he said.
Bishop Castro said approximately 50% of all the donations from around the world come from the United States, while the next biggest contributors are from Italy and Germany.
Despite the United States leading the way in donations, Egnew acknowledged that the Church here also doesn't promote the collection well.
“If you provide people with the information and education, they can't help but respond because the needs of these kinds of things are so great,” Egnew said.
Egnew added that the accountability for this collection is different than all the other second collections in this country. He said the donated money doesn't go through the bishops’ conference — which is why it doesn't offer audited statements about it — but through the apostolic nunciature in Washington, D.C.
“It goes directly from the local diocese to Holy Father with no ‘federal’ middle man,” Egnew said.
Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, the apostolic nuncio, did not return phone calls for comment.
Egnew said the collection operates differently than the other overseas collections, which operate more in partnership with Catholic agencies, such as Catholic Relief Services, and governments. Decisions about where the funds from those collections end up are made in the United States instead of by the Holy See, he said.
“But there are some things that the Holy See is uniquely able to see as needs around the world that these other agencies might not be able to see,” Egnew said. “They have to work in the parameters that the Holy Father doesn't.”
Now that he knows his donations go to help the poor and disadvantaged around the world instead of supporting the Vatican's treasures, Kunder, the parishioner from Largo, Fla., said he would give more money this year.
“I feel responsible for them [the poor], as all Catholics should,” Kunder said.
He added that he believes the Holy Father will dole out the money wisely.
“I trust this Pope,” he said. “I believe he's a man of integrity.”
Carlos Briceño writes from Seminole, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: Second Collections ----- EXTENDED BODY: Carlos Briceno ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:Gibson's Distribution Company Sues for $40 Million
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 9 — Icon Distribution, Mel Gibson's movie-distribution company, is suing Regal Entertainment for upwards of $40 million. The company started by the director of The Passion of the Christ says Regal short-changed it on revenues for the movie.
Regal, the nation's largest movie chain, had agreed to pay Icon 55% of receipts from the movie but went back on its promise in May, the Associated Press reported. Instead, it offered only 34%, according to George Hedges, an attorney for Icon.
The lawsuit was filed June 7 in Los Angeles and said Regal owed Icon “in excess” of $40 million.
The Passion of the Christ is No. 7 on the all-time domestic box-office charts, taking in $369.9 million since its Feb. 25 release.
Theology of the Body Makes Its Way Into Culture
The New York Times reported on a recent talk in New Jersey by Christopher West, a writer and lecturer on Pope John Paul II's theology of the body teachings. The article goes on to mention priests and other speakers promoting the Holy Father's writings on love and sexuality.
Father Richard Hogan, a priest from the Diocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, explained that the body is regarded as the expression of God, so therefore it will never be used as “a thing” whose functions can be altered or manipulated, the Times noted.
While the article noted the Pope's teachings have its critics — such as an ex-priest who teaches at Emory University and Frances Kissling of Catholics for a Free Choice — it ended on a positive note, quoting Peter McFadden, who started a theology of the body study group in New York.
“We just wanted more,” McFadden said. “We wanted a love that's really true and meaningful and deep. Reading the Pope's writings helped me understand what true love is and how to recognize it and how to get it.”
Hawaii Public Schools Teach Abstinence Only
A federally financed national program run by Catholic Charities is sending a new message to teens — getting middle and high school students to abstain from sex rather than just teaching them how to be “safe,” the Honolulu Advertiser reported.
Try Wait! teaches only abstinence, with eight lessons that teach kids how and why they should save sex for marriage, including discussions on how various forms of protection can fail.
The federal government has funded hundreds of abstinence-only programs across the nation, provided they do not also teach students about safe-sex practices or relate abstinence to religion, the newspaper noted. Try Wait! has a three-year federal grant and was awarded $750,000 to begin the program this year.
While under the umbrella of Catholic Charities, officials say, the program has no religious base.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Oversight of Church Is Voided In Phoenix DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:PHOENIX — A fallout of the clerical sex-abuse scandal that erupted in 2002 has been government interference in the affairs of the Church.
But one instance of that has now been reversed.
Maricopa County, Ariz., Attorney Richard Romley announced May 20 that he was voiding an agreement his office had made with the Diocese of Phoenix the previous May that took away the bishop's authority over sexual abuse and child-protection policies and practices, giving the county attorney's office oversight instead.
The agreement followed a lengthy and exhaustive investigation by civil authorities that revealed numerous cases of sex abuse by priests as well as cover-ups of these abuses by former Bishop Thomas O'Brien and senior diocesan officials.
Romley said May 20 the decision was being abandoned because of the progress made by the diocese under Bishop Thomas Olmsted in addressing sex-abuse issues.
“I do believe Bishop Olmsted is sincere and really wanting to make changes,” Romley was quoted by the East Valley Tribune as saying at the meeting.
The bishop listed a number of safeguards now in place, including revisions of misconduct policies, mandatory training throughout the diocese and the establishment of a Youth Protection Advocate office.
His appointment Nov. 25 followed a tumultuous year for the half-million Catholics in the diocese, culminating in Bishop O'Brien's resignation after he was involved in a hit-and-run fatality.
“Look at how far we have come under the leadership of Bishop Olmsted,” Romley told about 350 participants at the joint summit sponsored by the diocese and the county attorney's office May 20 summit on sexual abuse recognition and prevention. “We have turned a corner. I am growing confident that this will no longer occur within the Catholic Church.”
But if Romley was impressed with Bishop Olmsted's leadership in protecting children from sex abuse, other Catholics are hailing the bishop for his decision making when it comes to a clear teaching of the faith.
The bishop recently suspended Father Andre Boulanger from ministry after the retired priest refused to remove his name from the Phoenix Declaration, a pro-homosexual statement. He was the only one of nine Phoenix priests who refused to remove his name.
The suspension was pursuant to a letter sent to Father Boulanger in late May in which Bishop Olmsted expressed concerns about the priest's obedience. The letter stated that Father Boulanger would remain suspended until he gave the bishop assurances that he does in fact believe Church teachings on homosexuality.
Father Boulanger responded with a letter of his own, arguing that Church teaching on homosexuality is based on outdated science.
Since his installation late last year, Bishop Olmsted has been out-spoken against abortion and emphasized that Communion should not be received by those in manifest, obnstinate, public, serious sin.
Bishop's Approach
Bishop Olmsted was bishop of Wichita, Kan., when he was appointed to Phoenix. He has also served in the Vatican Secretariat of State and as president of the Pontifical College Josephinum in Ohio, the only pontifical seminary outside of Italy.
He said in an interview that the vision he brings to his role as bishop is rooted in the teachings of Pope John Paul II, particularly the Holy Father's 1999 apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America (The Church in America). An important priority will be education and formation, including incorporating theology of the body instruction in diocesan programs as well as establishing a Catholic university in Phoenix.
His approach focuses on discipline, education and leadership. He replaced key diocesan personnel, including the two vicars general, with priests who were not involved in the sex-abuse controversy. The bishop is also appointing a new head of the Kino Institute, the diocese's center for spiritual formation of deacons and lay people.
He also said he is planning a strong commitment to pro-life out-reach. That was evident from his first week in Phoenix, when he led a large prayer vigil at an abortion facility. He also said much-needed funding for the diocese's Respect Life Office will be restored.
“We are extremely pleased with Bishop Olmsted's support,” said Tom Takash, Arizona coordinator for the pro-life apostolate Children of the Rosary. “He is vigorously leading a renewed diocesan commitment to pro-life efforts here in Phoenix.”
In the case of the Phoenix Declaration, which the nine priests signed before Bishop Olmsted was appointed, the bishop said it undermined Catholic teaching and neglected to state the Church's position on the sinful nature of homosexual behavior. Bishop Olmsted clarified that teaching in a recent article in The Catholic Sun, the diocesan newspaper, titled “The Blessing of a Chaste Life — The Call to Holiness of Homosexual Persons.”
Further, Bishop Olmsted has recently weighed in on the controversy regarding whether pro-abortion Catholic politicians should be allowed to receive holy Communion.
In a press release, he said politicians who are unambiguously pro-abortion should refrain from receiving holy Communion. He also stated that if a Catholic politician obstinately persists in his pro-abortion views, “measures beyond those of moral persuasion would be needed.
Bishop Olmsted's strong leadership seems to have brought a new sense of hope and renewal to the Catholic community.
“I have had the pleasure of working with Bishop Olmsted for the past four years,” said Terry Barber, head of St. Joseph's Communications. “His leadership for the Midwest Family Conference has been great. His leadership in the Church gives me hope for the future of the Catholic Church in America.”
Mark Henry and Alyssa Henry write from Phoenix.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mark Henry and Alyssa Henry ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Mass Translations DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — In the 40 years since the Second Vatican Council, the English used in the liturgy of the Mass has grown ever more unpopular.
Criticisms have ranged from the relatively mild — that it's too conversational, flat or prosaic — to the more severe — that it's banal, dumbed down or downright abominable.
For many Catholics it has diminished the meaning of the Mass, leaving the celebration less than what the liturgy should be: both elevating and inspiring.
So in 2001 the Holy See issued the instruction Liturgiam Authenticam (The Authentic Liturgy), whose aim was to render the translations of the Mass more faithful to the Latin.
Consultations have since been taking place between English-speaking bishops’ conferences, scholars and the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, all of which have been working together to produce draft translations — primarily of the Order of the Mass but not, as yet, the entire Roman Missal.
The work will eventually be presented to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Vatican department charged with eventually bringing the new translation into force.
So after three years of examination and discussion, what stage has been reached in achieving a new translation?
During his ad limina visit to Rome in late May, the U.S. representative on the liturgy commission, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, told the Register that “everything is translated.”
So far, he added, in the new translation the commission has “slavishly, almost, followed Liturgicam Authenticam.”
“Furthermore,” he said, “the syntax of the Latin is much more respected and still with the idea that it will be pronounceable or be able to be prayed publicly, but with more preparation.”
One particular concern being addressed is the frequent use of so-called feminist inclusive language, common in contemporary language but which often fails to accurately communicate the meaning of a Latin word or phrase.
This has been “much diminished,” the cardinal explained, when “you translate the Latin very closely.”
He added that some who have read the draft consider it to be “more beautiful,” that “if you do it slowly and you say it aloud, it does hold together.”
But Cardinal George conceded that “real problems” exist with the draft translation.
“We knew that when we did it,” he explained. “So we welcome other corrections and then we'll see. After that we'll send it back to the bishops and they'll have to vote it up or vote it down and send it to Rome or not.”
The criticisms have been varied. The Australian bishops are said to be generally happy with the text, but some U.S. bishops consider it to be “too English,” taking issue with words such as “deign” in the translation.
Meanwhile, the English bishops’ conference is said to consider the current draft “antiquated” and so “clumsy” that some thought the translation had been rendered by Google's automated translation facility.
“I think that's a bit exaggerated,” Cardinal George said. “Parts of it are clumsy, but clumsy is rather subjective. Others will say it's more complex. It's not simple declarative statements like, ‘You see me, I see you.’”
The cardinal added that the new translation “presupposes” one can handle a dependent clause.
“If you get used to seeing Big Bird on television and that's the strength of your syntax, well then you're in some trouble here,” he said jokingly.
Some authoritative sources, taking into account that so far only the first draft stage has been reached, are nevertheless said to be very happy with the way the new translations are progressing.
“I think where we are now is very encouraging,” one source said. “If we continue in this same direction without turning back, I think we'll be fine. I'm the most optimistic I've been about it for years.”
But there are still many obstacles to be overcome, not least confronting the resistance of those who have become used to the conversational language after what one scholar described as “40 years of conditioning.”
“We've got used to a very folksy idiom,” Cardinal George said. “Now we have to go back and redo it and the idiom will sound strange, and people don't like change. In a way it's the liberals who are now being very conservative.”
But the cardinal is confident of the future. “I think [the liturgy commission] is doing good work,” he said. “There's more participation of the hierarchies around the world than there was, and what we have to do now is get the feedback from the bishops.”
Father Bruce Harbert, the general secretary of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy and an ex-Anglican from the Archdiocese of Birmingham, England, said he was “happy with the progress made so far.”
But he stressed that another revision will be made when all the liturgy commission's bishops meet in July, after which they “will have to send it out for consultation.”
Cardinal George predicted “much will be redone” during the meeting.
As for a date when the final translation of the Order of Mass will be published, Father Harbert said that is up to the bishops.
One estimate is for the entire Mass to be translated within two years, but one source called that timeline “very optimistic.” The provisional date of January 2005 for rendering the Order of the Mass is not considered likely, but Rome's approval is foreseen as speedy if progress continues in its present form.
About Time
Whatever changes are eventually made to the Mass translations, many in the English-speaking Church agree they are long overdue.
“Rome should have done this years ago,” said Father Ian Ker, a theologian at Campion Hall at Oxford University and a leading authority on Cardinal John Newman.
Father Ker added that the bad-translation problem will be much harder to remedy after having been allowed to persist for so long.
“Now,” he said, “there's a risk that a significant number of priests who have become conditioned to the current translation won't accept it.”
Edward Pentin writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: Liturgy Commission Is Moving Forward ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:John Paul Declares Indian Priest Servant of God
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA, June 5 — Pope John Paul II has named Father Joseph Vithayathil, a Kerala, India-born priest who founded the congregation of the Holy Family, a servant of God.
The Pope made his pronouncement May 18 and a ceremony in India on June 7 marked the designation officially. It is the first step on the road to sainthood.
Father Vithayathil was born in 1865 in Puthanpally, India, into a family that produced several nuns and priests, including Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil, current archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly and head of the Syro-Malabar Church.
Father Vithayathil was ordained a priest in 1894 and served as vicar of the church at the headquarters of the Holy Family Congregation, which was founded by Mariam Thresia, whom the Vatican beatified in 2000. He had spiritual vision and prudence besides a deep love for people, especially the poor and needy, said the congregation's superior general, Sister Annie Palathingal.
Father Vithayathil died in 1964. His cause was opened in April 2003.
Ratzinger Calls for Caution on Denying Communion
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 4 — Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told bishops visiting the Vatican they should be cautious about denying Communion to Catholic politicians whose positions conflict with Church teaching.
Bishop Donald Pelotte of Gallup, N.M., said the cardinal, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the Vatican would like to meet soon with a panel of U.S. bishops reviewing the bishops' response to Catholic leaders in public life, the Associated Press reported.
According to Bishop Pelotte, who was at the Vatican for his once-every-five-year ad limina visit, Cardinal Ratzinger did not say whether Communion should be used as a sanction.
What Cardinal Ratzinger “was suggesting,” Bishop Pelotte told Catholic News Service, “was a meeting as soon as possible between the [bishops‘] task force and people at the doctrinal congregation, to work out some kind of understanding.”
The task force was expected to give a report on its progress at the bishops' conference meeting in Denver from June 14-19.
Aziz Family Turns to Pope for Help
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, June 9 — The family of Tariq Aziz has written to Pope John Paul II for his help in learning the former Iraqi deputy prime minister's whereabouts. Aziz was detained by the United States after he turned himself in to the Americans in April 2003.
After his arrest, “we had no news from him until the last week of June 2003, when we first received a letter from him, but we haven't seen him nor have we talked to him,” Aziz's daughter, Zainab Aziz, told the Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana.
In his last letter to family members in April, Aziz said he was still in Iraq.
Aziz, 68, was the only Christian member of Saddam Hussein's cabinet. He met frequently with Pope John Paul II, most recently in February 2003 before the U.S.-led war on Iraq began, Agence France-Presse reported.
The news service did not mention a response to the family from the Pope or the Vatican.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- -------- TITLE: Suffering Can Be a Path to Spiritual Enrichment DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:Register Summary
Pope John Paul II reflected on his June 5-6 visit to Switzerland during his general audience June 9 as he met with pilgrims who gathered in St. Peter's Square on the eve of the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.
The main reason for his trip, the Holy Father said, was to be with the young people of Switzerland as they held their first national meeting and to deliver a message to them and to young people throughout the world.
“This message, which is so dear to my heart, can be summarized in three verbs: rise, listen and set out your way!” the Holy Father said. “Christ himself, who has risen and is alive, speaks these words to every young man and every young woman of our time.”
More than 45,000 young people from every corner of Switzerland gathered for the meeting.
During a Mass on June 6 for more than 70,000 people, the Pope renewed his call for Christian unity and for a missionary spirit.
“I renewed my appeal for unity among all Christians, inviting Catholics, first of all, to live out this unity among themselves in order to make the Church ‘the home and school of communion,’” the Holy Father said. “The Holy Spirit, who creates unity, also impels us to mission, so that we will proclaim and be witnesses to the truth of God and man, which is revealed in Christ, to everybody.”
Another highlight of his visit, John Paul said, was a meeting with former members of the Swiss Guard, who have served the Holy See for almost 500 years.
I have fond memories of different moments during my brief but intense stay in Switzerland last Saturday and Sunday, which God in his providence allowed me to experience once again.
Once again, I would like to thank my brother bishops and the civil authorities, especially the president of the Swiss Confederation, for warmly welcoming me and for all the work they did in preparation. I would also like to thank the Federal Council for its decision to elevate the rank of Switzerland's diplomatic representation to the Holy See.
I would also like to extend a word of profound gratitude to the Sisters of Charity of the Holy Cross, who offered me hospitality at their residence in Viktoriaheim. Finally, I would like to thank all those people who took care of the various aspects of my pastoral journey.
‘Rise, Listen, Set Out’
The main reason for my apostolic pilgrimage to that beloved nation was to meet with the Catholic youth of Switzerland, who held their first national meeting last Saturday. I thank the Lord for giving me the opportunity to experience a moment of great spiritual enthusiasm together with them and to deliver to this new generation of Swiss a message I would like to extend to all young people of Europe and throughout the world.
This message, which is so dear to my heart, can be summarized in three verbs: rise, listen and set out your way! Christ himself, who has risen and is alive, speaks these words to every young man and woman of our time. It is he who invites the youth of this third millennium to rise and, in doing so, give full meaning to their lives. I wanted to echo this cry, convinced that Christ alone, the redeemer of man, is able to help our young people to rise once again above any negative experience and any negative mentality and to grow to their full human stature, both spiritual and moral.
On Sunday morning, the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, I was able to concelebrate the Eucharist with the bishops and the many priests who came from every corner of Switzerland. This festive celebration took place at Allmend Park, a vast clearing in front of the BEA Bern Expo Palace. With one voice, we lifted up our praise and thanksgiving to the one, triune God for the beauty of creation, in which Switzerland is rich, and even more so for the communion of love of which he is the source.
Call to Christian Unity
In the light of this fundamental mystery of our Christian faith, I renewed my appeal for unity among all Christians, inviting Catholics, first of all, to live out this unity among themselves in order to make the Church “the home and school of communion” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, No. 43). The Holy Spirit, who creates unity, also impels us to mission, so that we will proclaim and be witnesses to everybody of the truth of God and man, which is revealed in Christ. Indeed, every man bears within him the imprint of the one, triune God and can find peace only in him.
Before leaving Bern, I was able to meet with the Association of Former Swiss Guards. It was a providential opportunity to thank them from the valuable service which the Swiss Guards have provided to the Holy See for almost five centuries. There are so many thousands of young men from Swiss families and parishes who have made a rather unique contribution to the Successor of Peter over the centuries! Those young men — like all young men, full of life and high ideals — have been able to show in this way their sincere love for Christ and for his Church. May the young people of Switzerland and of the entire world be able to discover the marvelous unity between faith and life and with enthusiasm prepare themselves to carry out the mission to which God is calling them!
May Mary Most Holy, whom I wholeheartedly thank for being able to make this 103rd apostolic journey, obtain for everyone this great and precious gift, which is the secret of true joy!
(Register translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Vatican Looks at Venus DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy — The Vatican Observatory at the papal palace at Castel Gandolfo was host for several days in early June to 90 professional and advanced amateur astronomers. Half of them observed from the roof of the palace overlooking Lake Albano in this hillside town south of Rome the June 8 transit of Venus.
The Specola, as the Vatican Observatory is also called, is not only one of the most highly respected observatories in the world but also is one of the oldest astronomical institutes. It dates back to 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII formed a committee to look at the scientific data and ramifications involved in a reform of the calendar.
The guests were part of a group organized by the American astronomy magazine Sky & Telescope, whose assistant editor, Imelda Joson, and her husband were the only two people in the group of 40 to have previously visited the Vatican Observatory.
The second half of the group viewed the celestial event from a site at a nearby town and visited the observatory June 10.
Sky & Telescope titled the June 8 event “Venus Has Its Day in the Sun” and noted in a report from Rome that “the rain and clouds that had persisted for days suddenly cleared up after 4 a.m., and observers watched the transit with perfect skies.”
An astronomical “transit” is the passage of one object in the sky in front of another: In this case, Venus passed between Earth and the sun. Because this event occurred before sunrise in the Western Hemisphere, astronomers from Canada and the United States came to Europe for the viewing.
One of the Jesuits present at the June 8 transit, Brother Guy Consolmagno, explained that because proper equipment is necessary to safely observe the transit and the sun, the Tucson-based Coronado Technology Group, in preparation for the event, gave the Specola a telescope especially equipped for solar observation. It was presented May 31 to Jesuit Father George Coyne, director of the observatory, at Castel Gandolfo.
“The new telescope,” Brother Consolmagno said, “is very small and very elegant. We simply strapped it to the side of one of the larger telescopes we have at the observatory. Its special optics were designed to allow astronomers to look safely at the sun.”
He said they took many photos June 8, including some through the telescope and others using both webcams and TV cameras.
The rare transits of Venus happen in pairs, eight years apart, separated by 130 years. Since the invention of the telescope, only five such transits have occurred, the last on Dec. 6, 1882. There will be one other transit this century, on June 6, 2012. Venus was approximately 60 million miles from the Earth on June 8 during the six-hour transit.
Brother Consolmagno said one reason the Specola welcomed guests was part of a continuing effort to show how the Church embraces science. He said he thought the Vatican was the drawing card in getting so many people, including a Presbyterian minister who is an amateur astronomer, to sign up for the trip.
A native of Detroit who was an astronomer with a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in planetary sciences before entering the Society of Jesus in 1989, Brother Consolmagno has been at the Specola since 1993. He spends part of his year at the Castel Gandolfo headquarters of the Vatican Observatory and another part in Tucson, where the principal telescope used in their work — the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope — is located.
The Jesuit astronomer, whose enthusiasm about his science is contagious, called the reaction to the June 8 transit “fascinating.”
“I expected people to cheer or laugh or applaud, but instead there was a profound silence,” he said. “The transit was not a spectacular event but rather a sublime moment because of its rarity and history. There was a sense of the wondrous predictability of it all, a sense that this was so beautifully predicted hundreds of years ago and it occurred right on schedule. Nonetheless, to see it happen — as predicted — gives you a sense of wonder.”
“There is so much chaos in the universe,” he continued, “yet this gave you an emotional sense of ‘some things work’ in the universe. Here, on June 8, it worked.”
Brother Consolmagno explained that long before the invention of satellites and today's highly sophisticated measuring instruments, events such as transits were used to calculate distances in the universe. Transits were used, for example, by English astronomer Edmund Halley (of Halley's comet fame) in celestial mechanics, which is the mathematics of predicting where planets are supposed to be. A close friend of his was Isaac Newton, and Newton's theory of gravitation greatly influenced Halley's work.
Asked what special attributes a person needed to become an astronomer, Brother Consolmagno replied, “a pair of eyes, a sense of logic, enthusiasm and patience. Many brilliant astronomers, self-taught, had only these qualities.”
If enthusiasm alone could make one an astronomer, Brother Consolmagno could transform armies of people into stargazers.
Joan Lewis works for Vatican Information Service.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joan Lewis ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: The Drowning Pool DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:MAPOU, Haiti — It happened suddenly, while everyone was asleep. First came the sound of a strong wind and then the water roared down the mountain and smashed through Mapou, a poor farming community about 30 miles southeast of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, turning it into a drowning pool.
The scene was also replayed in other villages in the southeastern part of Haiti and across the border in the Dominican Republic as torrential rains at the end of May in those poverty-stricken countries washed away homes, destroyed crops, killed livestock and caused death and misery for thousands of people.
Rescue workers on the Caribbean island have been hampered by poor roads, so emergency relief has been slow to reach some areas, relief officials said.
By June 7, Catholic Relief Services, the international humanitarian agency of the U.S. bishops, had raised $222,000 in private funds that is being used to buy items such as food, potable water, medicine and materials for shelter. It has also received a $140,000 grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance for emergency non-food relief items, said Brian Shields, a Catholic Relief Services’ spokesman.
In Haiti alone, about 1,500 people are estimated to be dead and 1,500 missing, with about 25,000 people dislocated from their homes, said Sheyla Biamby, program manager for social assistance for Catholic Relief Services Haiti.
One Catholic Relief Services eyewitness to the flooding in Mapou, who walked six hours along with four other relief workers to bring the survivors there some food, said he saw coconut trees submerged in water.
“All the agriculture is devastated,” said George Malval, Catholic Relief Services’ garage manager. “There is practically nothing for them to eat. Only coconuts and mangos.”
About 100 Haitians walked back with the relief workers in order to pick up and carry home rice, potatoes, corn, wheat, toothbrushes, toothpaste and cooking pots, Malval said.
Harrowing Escape
One survivor of the Mapou flood said neighbors told her of their harrowing escape from the flood. They pierced open their tin roof with machetes, pulled themselves to the top of the roof, and then, with the water steadily rising toward them, the family, which included two elderly people, climbed onto coconut and orange trees that had limbs above their home, according to Biamby, who relayed the account from a woman who was a neighbor of the family. The family stayed perched on the trees during the night until the morning, when several small wooden boats floated by and rescued them.
In the Dominican Republic, more than 400 people are estimated to have died and more than 300 missing, said Andrew Rosauer, country representative for Catholic Relief Services in the Dominican Republic.
“I was overwhelmed,” Rosauer said when describing the scene he saw at Jimani, a small town in the southwest part of the country near the Haitian border. “The area was just blasted. Nothing was left but gravel and scrap metal. Just imagine, [recently] it was thriving communities. The people are shell-shocked.”
On June 1, a memorial Mass was held in Jimani's town square, with most of the townspeople wearing masks because of the dust. Only days earlier, it had been under about six and a half feet of water, Rosauer said. But the waters had receded in Jimani and the town was back to its former, dusty self — except without the ramshackle homes and businesses that once stood there.
“They can't recover their losses,” Rosauer said. “They have to go on. Given the magnitude of the devastation and the loss, it's going to be hard. There's a lot of work to be done in terms of material and spiritual work.”
Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez, primate of the Church in the Dominican Republic, and several bishops and priests from the surrounding area presided at the Mass. About 800 people attended the nationally televised service, according to Rosauer, who was also there.
Bishop Moya
“The Mass was very sentimental,” said Bishop Jesus Maria de Jesus Moya of San Francisco de Macoris. “One minute there was joy, another there was sadness. God is the father of love, and during the Mass we explained how we believe in the resurrection, and we believe in the love that unites all of us.”
He said the tragedy has made the people in the town and in Arenoso, another area affected by the torrential rains, more united.
“It has shown us how to work together, one for the other person,” Bishop Moya said, “and it has shown us a world that is united and collaborative.”
The bishops have asked the people to grow spiritually, and the Church has also helped in providing food and various other relief items, said Bishop Moya, president of National Caritas in the Dominican Republic.
“The Church is really coming out as the leader in terms of supporting the people in need,” Rosaeur said.
At the Mass in Jimani, Rosaeur met a woman who was grieving for her dead children. She told him the flood happened at about 4 a.m. She was sleeping when the water swept through their home, which was situated on a dry riverbed, like many of the other homes. Four of her children were swept away. She saved two of them, she told him.
Rosaeur emphasized that people in other parts of the Dominican Republic also are suffering.
In Arenoso, in the north-central part, Catholic Relief Services and Caritas are working without much help from other non-Catholic relief organizations to help the people there, since it hasn't received as much publicity as in Jimani. More than 6,000 families have been affected by the floods there, and more than 20 people have died, he said.
Biamby said the Church in Haiti has also come together to offer its help.
“I know there's a mobilization of the Catholic Church,” Biamby said, “to do prayers and intentions and Masses and to coordinate efforts and actions.”
Carlos Briceño writes from Seminole, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: Catholic Aid Pours Into Flood-Ravaged Haiti and Dominican Republic ----- EXTENDED BODY: Carlos Briceno ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:Christians Begin Leaving Iraq
Most of the Christians in Iraq are Assyrian Christians, who claim to be the original inhabitants of Iraq. They were the people of Ninevah, present-day Mosul, where God sent Jonah of the Old Testament, Insight on the News noted.
“We thought the Americans were going to bring us freedom and democracy,” said a 31-year-old Christian named Robert. “Instead, they are promoting Islam. We do not understand it. … We love the Americans! We are so grateful for them removing Saddam and giving us back our freedom. We do not want their effort to be a failure if the dictatorship of Saddam is replaced by the dictatorship of Islam.”
Italian Teens Murdered in Satanic Ritual
REUTERS, June 7 — Police in Italy have arrested four members of a band called Beasts of Satan for the murder of two former band members. The killings are believed to have been a part of a satanic sacrifice.
Police announced in early June they had uncovered in northern Italy the bodies of a 16-year-old and a 19-year-old who were last seen in January 1998 leaving a pizzeria with other members of the heavy-metal rock band, Reuters reported.
As many as 5,000 people are thought to be members of satanic cults in Italy, according to officials, with 17- to 25-year-olds making up three-quarters of them.
Ireland Archbishop Attends Presbyterian Assembly
Members of three of the 21 Presbyteries in preceding weeks had questioned the invitation, expressing their theological misgivings about a Catholic archbishop being asked to attend the assembly.
“I find that through dialogue people can retain their strong convictions but can still grow in appreciation and understanding of one another,” Archbishop Brady said. “This evening is another step in a journey to a greater appreciation and understanding of one another's position, so that we all may do and follow what the Lord wants us to do.”
Human Rights Watch Calls for Vietnam Investigation
CATHNEWS.COM (Australia), June 8 — Reports that government soldiers in Vietnam killed dozens of Christians during peaceful protests at Easter have prompted calls for further investigation into the matter.
According to The Tablet, a London Catholic newspaper, thousands of Christians gathered to protest religious discrimination and confiscation of ancestral lands April 10-11, CathNews.com reported. Soldiers beat dozens to death.
Vietnam's communist government, however, insists only two people died and that they were “violent extremists.”
Sam Zarifi, the deputy director of Human Rights Asia, said indigenous Christians were still unable to live freely in their villages and are threatened with violence if they leak information on their situation to the outside world.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Plan DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:What if the Pope delivered a brilliant program for the future of the Church — we'll call it The Plan — and practically no one followed it?
What if he convened an extraordinary consistory of cardinals with the sole purpose of reading The Plan and implementing it? What if he personally came up with creative initiatives to promote The Plan? What if he dedicated a year each to two planks of the plan? What if he mentioned The Plan in his ad limina addresses to every U.S. bishop? What if he escalated his requests and practically demanded implementation of the key planks of The Plan in formal documents and even an encyclical?
And what if most of us still ignored it?
This is precisely what has happened with the program Pope John Paul II laid out in his 2001 apostolic letter Novo Millennio Ineunte (At the Beginning of the New Millennium).
The Holy Father has done everything humanly possible to draw attention to its major planks — up to devoting a year to the rosary and, on June 11, announcing a Year of the Eucharist.
The pastoral plan in Novo Millennio Ineunte is so vitally important to John Paul it can be said that he's been preparing the Church for it for more than a decade.
He explains it all right there in the document.
The document starts with long introductory remarks summing up the Jubilee Year 2000, which was like a retreat, with three years leading up to it and deep efforts at renewal in the year itself. It also includes a beautiful contemplation of the face of Christ. But then, in its third section, “Starting Afresh From Christ,” it spells out The Plan.
The Pope announces “our program for the third millennium,” which “must be translated into pastoral initiatives adapted to the circumstances of each community.”
He speaks solemnly: “I therefore earnestly exhort the pastors of the particular Churches, with the help of all sectors of God's people, confidently to plan the stages of the journey ahead.”
Then he becomes almost self-consciously businesslike. When he writes about the importance of holiness, he adds, “At first glance, it might seem almost impractical to recall this elementary truth as the foundation of the pastoral planning in which we are involved at the start of the new millennium. Can holiness ever be ‘planned’?”
He decides that it can be planned, or at least planned for, and then he spells out how: The Church should find creative ways to promote Sunday Mass, confession, prayer and community service (along with certain policy priorities).
In fairness, a lot has happened in America since The Plan was released — Sept. 11, 2001, came within months, and then came the 2002 crisis as the Church scandals erupted.
But if the crisis has preoccupied Catholics, it has also brought the Church's problems into sharper relief. With a clearer vision of our problems, perhaps we can better see the profundity of simple, principled solutions.
Positive, bold action is the best response to an atmosphere of malaise and mistrust.
Take the four main parts of The Plan, for example.
There is a crisis of fidelity in the Church. We could convene a plenary council to discuss the root causes of infidelity — but why not just promote the most basic fidelity: to Sunday Mass? A nationwide Sunday Mass promotion would help pastors who have grown gun-shy about mentioning religious obligations and would remind lay people that Sunday Mass is mandatory. A sea change in fidelity would follow if more people were faithful to Sunday Mass.
There is also a crisis of the sense of sin. The Church could spend valuable time at a council parsing theological statements about the fundamental obligation of conscience. Or the bishops could start a campaign to simply remind priests and lay people of the need for, and beauty of, confession. Nationwide events like Philadelphia's Reconciliation 2000 could be very successful.
There is intense secularism — so promote prayer. There is a dangerous new individualism and consumerism — so promote works of charity.
In the end, we can hardly blame the bishops for not implementing The Plan if we have done nothing ourselves to promote it. It was given not just to bishops but to “all sectors of God's people.” If we do our part, the Church's renewal will begin in our families, parishes and communities.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:Serious Situation
“Cardinal Will Meet With Lawmakers on Communion” (May 30-June 5) mentioned that the Code of Canon Law in No. 915 says those who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Communion.
Some have called the denial of Communion to pro-abortion politicians a sanction. It's really a canonical remedy. The priests are not condemning anyone. They are trying to heal and save souls. They are pointing out the grave seriousness of the situation.
Wouldn't it be a sacrilege for a priest to give the Eucharist to anyone who publicly goes against Church teaching committing a grave sin?
COLLEEN REILLY
Lebanon, Pennsylvania
Politicizing Doctrine
In the Catholic News Service article “Life Issues Must Come First for Catholic Voters, Cardinal Says” (May 9-15), Washington, D.C., Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who is leading a group of bishops working to determine the Church's response to politicians who publicly contradict Church teaching — including their reception of the Eucharist — said the group would not complete its work until after the November election. This unfortunately makes the worthy reception of the Eucharist sound tied to electoral politics. The group needs a publicized schedule to complete its work independent of electoral politics.
According to Cardinal McCarrick, the task force is also going to engage in “deep consultation” with U.S. bishops, episcopal conferences all over the world and the Vatican. It sounds as though the group could take a decade or more to finish its tasks. If this group has to spend all this time in consultation, then the canon law regarding the reception of Communion by publicly obstinate sinners must be so vague as to be useless.
This problem has been with us in the United States for more than 31 years since the legalization of abortion, and it has been a problem since St. Paul's time. It is unfathomable that lay people should have to wait so long and see so much money spent to answer what appears to be obvious: Politicians who persist in publicly encouraging the killing of anyone should be denied the Eucharist until they repent.
Letting such politicians receive Communion is letting them define the Catholic faith as a religion that sanctions the killing of the pre-born. Their reception of the Eucharist is a very bad example, especially for young people, and it is very bad for the future of the Church. Lay people deserve better!
FRANCOIS L. QUINSON
Gaithersburg, Maryland
Listen Here
Regarding “Pro-Terrorism, But Great on Other Issues!” (April 11-17), Father Frank Pavone's guest editorial:
I just wanted to let your readers know that St. Joseph Radio has recently recorded two talks by Father Pavone regarding the importance of the foundational pro-life issue in the upcoming elections. Father does a great job of explaining how our country was founded on the basis that our nation's laws would not conflict with God's laws.
I think it is a set of talks that everyone needs to listen to before they vote and that they need to share with their pastors and friends.
The tapes can be ordered through St. Joseph Radio by calling (714) 744-0336 or visiting our bebsite, www.stjosephradio.com.
SHELIA BEINGESSNER
La Palma, California
Judging Kerry
Regarding Trappist Father James Conner's letter “Don't Judge Politicians” (May 30-June 5):
I'm sorry, but I cannot see any similarity between St. Mary Magdalene and Sen. John Kerry. The former recognized the fact that she had sinned grievously against the Lord and committed herself to repentance. The latter refuses to admit he sins in voting for abortion, even partial-birth abortion, which most doctors agree is never “medically necessary.”
Kerry reminds me much more of the Scribes and Pharisees who insist they are righteous and to whom Jesus says, because of the very fact that they believe they are righteous, “Woe to you.” We are insisting that Communion be refused to those who publicly sin and are publicly unrepentant in order to avoid the scandal of seeming to condone a horrible form of sin: making it fully legal for a mother to murder her own child.
Perhaps if President Bush were Catholic, he should be denied the Eucharist, too, but he is not Catholic. And though the wartime activities are horrible, and though he has done other things that do not truly support those who are least among us, he is not fighting to keep laws that are evil. We need to be rid of those immoral laws as a nation — the fact that we have this as a “right” is worse than any war. More American children are killed every year by abortion than Americans killed in all our wars combined.
I ask that Father Conner call to mind what St. Paul said about the man who publicly engaged in incest and refused to repent (1 Corinthians 5).
PAM HASKER
Houston
Episcopal Cops
Regarding “Communion Issue Shows No Sign of Letting Up” (May 23-29):
New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey is being commended because he said he would obey Newark Archbishop John Myers, who said he should not receive Communion. What was left out of your article was that the governor said he would not receive at “public Mass,” intimating that he will receive privately.
We don't expect our bishops to be policemen, standing at the Communion line and rejecting people. However, these are our shepherds and we expect them to lead our confused sheep. We expect them to get their act together.
What good will [Cardinal Theodore McCarrick's task force] be if it won't release its conclusions or plans until after the November election? By then it will all be over and we will get what we deserve.
MARIE SALVATO
Brick, New Jersey
Pentecost Past
I enclose a clipping from your May 30-June 5 edition to ask: Why was there no mention of Pentecost or the Holy Spirit for the great feast of Pentecost?
As you are aware, Easter and Pentecost stand alone as our two great feasts in Christianity. What happened? Suppose we did that to Easter or even Mother's Day?
As the Holy Father said at Vatican II: “No Holy Spirit, no Church.”
Otherwise, I love your paper.
FATHER JOHN RANDALL
North Providence, Rhode Island
Nonexistent Noah?
Regarding “Raider of Noah's Lost Ark” in the June 6-12 issue:
There were statements in this article implying that Noah was not a physical being, a real historical person. I have heard similar stories regarding Adam and Eve, too.
When I read Genesis 5:3-32, 11:10-26 and Matthew 1:2-19 as well as Luke 3:23-38, these genealogy passages include the names of Adam and Noah. If Adam and Noah did not exist, then guess what? Neither did Jesus.
Some atheists say religion is a man-made means to control the masses. If Adam, Noah and Jesus did not exist, maybe they are correct — in which case our faith is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:14).
If I am understanding this issue incorrectly, please educate me and my six children. Please include documents that exclude my understanding and show it as false.
JOE AND SUE MARINCEL
Flower Mound, Texas
Restorative Justice in Review
Regarding the Catholic News Service article “Southern Bishops Suggest Restorative Justice Rather Than Imprisonment” (May 23-29):
The article states: “The idea is not to replace the current court system, the bishops said, but to offer, for example, programs such as mediated victim-offender community conferences.”
The last sentence of the article states: “If the parties are unwilling or unable to reach a resolution, the case goes back to regular criminal court.” This sounds as if this system is intended to replace the criminal court system.
I agree that the criminal should have to face his victim and make restitution. He or she must also pay the penalty required by law.
We have seen in the past where such programs lead to the regular release of criminals who repeat the same crime again and again. Remember the murderers who were released from life in prison because they wrote a book and a famous author felt they had repented of their sins and secured their release? They murdered again.
The bishops have also pressed for the lenient treatment of juveniles. I remember a TV interview many years ago with a juvenile who had been arrested for killing a rival gang member. When asked if he would kill after he became an adult, he replied: “Heck no. They can fry you as an adult.”
I hope the bishops will not short-circuit our justice system.
WM. CORRIGAN
Los Angeles
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: The Supreme Thwart DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:Belatedly, I write to congratulate you and all the other members of your publication to express my thanks to you personally and, at the same time, I wish to express my thanks to every person whom you know who believes as you do that the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court known as Roe v. Wade has gone down and will continue in an increasingly powerful downward slide because of its acceptance of and public endorsement of abortion.
Nothing in the history of the Supreme Court is as calamitous as this decision that made Roe v. Wade the law of the land. Sad to say, that decision was adopted quite a long time ago now, on Jan. 22, 1973. That decision was disgraceful when it was made.
Since then, I am one of those who believe more and more men and women are becoming dejected by this disgraceful decision of the Supreme Court. That decision is certainly the worst decision mentally and morally ever issued by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Today, I believe, more and more thinking men and women, increasing year by year in their number, are embarrassed by the court's decision in Roe v. Wade. And I for one hope the Supreme Court will sometime soon, rather than later, come to the realization that Roe v. Wade degrades the U.S. Supreme Court and has continued to degrade not only the court but also all the people in our country.
SARGENT SHRIVER WASHINGTON, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: A Father Watches A Network Moment DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:It was a true Network moment — as in the 1976 Oscar-winning film Network, which predicted the insanity ensuing from television-entertainment executives taking over the news operations.
No format seems to fuzz the distinction between news and entertainment more than the prime-time newsmagazine genre pioneered by CBS’ “60 Minutes” but now copied in endless ways across the broadcast dial. In the case in question, the offending program was ABC's “20/20,” the original “60 Minutes” copycat.
The topic April 30 was one that particularly caught my attention: open adoption. All four of my children are adopted through Catholic diocesan adoption agencies. We have three open adoptions with continuing contact and visits with the birth mothers. The fourth adoption (actually the first chronologically) is semi-open, with an occasional exchange of letters and photographs.
Barbara Walters and her crew undertook a noble endeavor: show the story of an open adoption from the birth mother's pregnancy through her agonizing (and deeply loving) choice to the adoption and its aftermath.
Open adoption is worth knowing about. At first blush, people think of the horror stories of the botched adoptions that made headlines a decade ago. Remember the prolonged and vicious court battles over Baby Jessica and Baby Richard? If an adoption is open, won't the birthparents come running back to reclaim their offspring?
No. Open adoption assures all parties are fully informed of what is going on. In the Baby Jessica and Baby Richard cases, birthparents were able to challenge the adoptions because rights were violated and information withheld. Moreover, open adoption assures birthparents of ongoing information that they made the right choice by giving a child a loving, two-parent family. It is not the only adoption option, but in our experience it is a good one.
I have been involved in four successful adoptions and two that failed. In both failures, the essential problem was that a close blood relation of the baby had not been informed of the pending adoption. When they received the shocking news and took action, everything fell apart.
In every case, the stakes are extremely high. With the options promoted in today's culture, birth-parents who choose adoption make an especially heroic, self-sacrificial act of love. There must be a special place in heaven for these birthparents. They give unique meaning to Christ's words, “Greater love has no man than this, that he give his life for a friend.”
So it was a shocker when ABC began promoting its open-adoption report as “the ultimate reality show,” in the words of 20/20 co-host John Stossel. That pitch would be repeated often in network promos for the report — until objections reached a fever pitch.
Barbara Walters herself is an adoptive mother.
Likening the heart-rending choices of a teen-age birth mother to the contrived shenanigans on “The Apprentice,” “Survivor” or “American Idol” is to reduce a profound covenantal commitment to game-show status. As Stossel is known to say, “Give me a break!”
To her credit, Walters publicly apologized for the “overly zealous” promotion of the segment. Walters herself is an adoptive mother.
The game-show aspect focused on the five couples a pregnant 16-year-old, Jessica Bohne, was considering as prospective adoptive parents. The hour-long program quoted prospective birthparents on-camera saying they felt the competitive need to “make the cut,” even “joking about the fact that it's like ‘The Bachelor,’ ‘The Bachelorette.’ You're in or you're out tonight.”
Well, now. If the prospective parents themselves compare the process to “reality TV,” what's the harm in the network promoting it as such?
Please note that the parent was talking about a joke; the network turned that joke into its dead-serious promotional campaign.
Television, as Marshall McLuhan and others have noted, is an essentially emotional medium. It can explore lives and issues with an immediacy of feeling the written word can rarely match.
But such emotions can be subject to abuse. During my days as a TV news anchor, I was instructed to “pump up the emotion” of stories to “hook” the audience. There are words for that: exploitation, sensationalism.
In the end, Walters’ report was a dignified story of a deeply moving reality, one that reaches to the very heart of the God-given institution on which society is founded.
Isn't that enough reason to promote a serious news report? Must we degrade and trivialize such a sacred choice by equating it with silly game shows?
Jay Dunlap writes from Hamden, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jay Dunlap ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Week America Mourned DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:President Ronald Reagan turned the city of Washington, D.C., once again into his stage and took the lead role for the last time.
The June 11 funeral at the magnificent National Cathedral — a quintessentially American cathedral, with its ornate high altar and soaring nave complemented by an Apollo XI stained-glass window and a Darth Vader gargoyle — capped a week in which the civic liturgy of America was marvelous to behold. Public ceremony, both secular and religious, demonstrated its power as it bid farewell to a president.
The Liturgy
Civic ceremony needs a stage, and Washington was designed for that purpose, with its broad avenues and imposing monuments. Like altar boys, the players play their roles without it being necessary to know their names — the row upon row of poster-perfect servicemen, the towering general on hand to escort the widow, the gleaming horses, the little boys standing street-side learning how to salute.
The rituals of a state funeral were a reminder of how important liturgical actions, broadly understood, are. The hoofbeats of the riderless horse and the solemn drumbeat, easily heard with the vast crowd hushed, spoke of the solemnity of the moment.
The traditional rituals were touched by 21st-century realities. Security was omnipresent, the Capitol itself having been evacuated shortly before Reagan's body arrived due to a false alarm. It was not a pretty sight, as the aging grandees of the Reagan era were hustled outside, breathless and sweaty in the sweltering heat. There is no total silence anymore, only the approximate silence that makes the ring of mobile phones all the more piercing. Fighter jets screamed by overhead, perhaps themselves part of the Reagan military buildup.
Finally, at the National Cathedral, it was clear they had come to bury not only a great president but also a sincere Christian. The hymns were all classics, from the Catholic (“Ave Maria”) to the Anglican (“Jerusalem”) to the Reformed (“Amazing Grace”) to the American (“Battle Hymn of the Republic”).
The Rev. John Danforth called Reagan a “child of the light,” remembering him as one who prayed for his would-be assassin from his hospital bed. And President George W. Bush spoke of how Reagan, who in this world had seen through a glass darkly, would now, as St. Paul promised, be “face to face with his Savior.”
After three decades since the last state funeral, it would have been easy to ask whether it was all too much. But it was striking that nobody did. For Ronald Reagan, it seemed everyone agreed, it was just about right.
The Legacy
The purpose of public liturgy is to permit the people to participate in events on a grand scale. The hundreds of thousands who stood through the steamy summer nights to salute Reagan in the Capitol rotunda and in California did just that. And the week in Washington took on something of the character of an Irish wake, with former Reagan administration officials gathering in conservative think tanks and on television to tell the same old stories and same old jokes over again, reminding themselves of what an extraordinary life his had been.
The timing of the former president's death underscored precisely the magnitude of his achievement. When the news of Reagan's death was announced, Europe's leaders were on their way to Normandy to celebrate the liberation of the western half of the continent. Reagan was a key player in the liberation of the eastern half.
At the remove of only 16 years, it seemed this week in Washington that the historical judgment was set: America's 40th president was the one who defeated communism and won the Cold War. Reagan died only a few days after the opening of the World War II Memorial on the Mall, the latest addition to the many wars commemorated there, from the Revolutionary War (Washington) and the Civil War (Lincoln), to the wars in Asia (Korea and Vietnam). At midnight on the Mall, looking up to the illuminated Capitol where he lay in state, it seemed as though the Cold War's triumphant general was now taking his turn in the place of honor.
There was talk, too, about Reagan's tax cuts and the economic expansion, the deficits and the Iran-contra scandal, but the emphasis was on the Cold War. Even among Catholic bishops, who as a body so strongly opposed Reagan's military spending, his Central American policy and his aggressive anti-communism, there were tributes to his role in the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., at a Mass offered in St. Matthew's Cathedral for the repose of Reagan's soul, spoke of Reagan's policies as laying the foundation for the liberation of the peoples of Eastern Europe.
There was surprisingly little mention of Reagan's pro-life stand by figures on either side of the abortion debate. Perhaps pro-lifers were disappointed that more was not achieved given Reagan's strong rhetorical support. More likely, it was another sign of how what was controversial in Reagan's day is now accepted as normal — that Republicans are, with exceptions, the pro-life party.
Reagan's moral clarity and willingness to speak in terms of good and evil was highlighted throughout. Baroness Margaret Thatcher said he freed the “slaves of communism.” Vice President Dick Cheney spoke of him in the Capitol as a “providential man.” The Senate chaplain, Rev. Rear Admiral Barry Black, gave alliterative expression to the same, saying that Reagan “lifted liberty's lamp until totalitarian towers tumbled.”
Reagan's death the day before D-Day brought to mind his landmark speech there 20 years ago on its 40th anniversary. He said of the Allied soldiers that they had “the deep knowledge — and pray God we have not lost it — that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and use of force for conquest.”
Reagan knew the difference and saw the exercise of American power in moral terms. For this he was ridiculed as a simpleton and a dangerous cowboy. But the moral framework for the fight against communism was the right one, and in time his view would be vindicated so completely that the vast communist empire would be dismantled without a shot being fired. Of course Reagan was not solely responsible, but he was a sine qua non in what must be considered the greatest foreign-policy triumph in recent history — the bloodless defeat and total destruction of the Soviet Empire.
When Reagan took office in 1981, the worldwide diplomatic consensus was that peaceful coexistence and containment were the best that the West could hope for vis-à-vis the communists. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter gave the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, announcing his commitment to détente, arms control, and containment, even as the decade saw one communist expansion after another. Reagan begged to differ.
“The West will not contain communism, it will transcend communism,” he said exactly four years later — also at Notre Dame, for maximum effect. “We'll dismiss it as a sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written.”
His confidence that the diplomatic consensus was wrong was rooted in his clear moral vision, namely, that communism was evil because it denied the liberty God gives to every man. Because it was evil, it had to be fought, and because it was evil it would not finally prevail.
He said as much in 1983 in the famous “Evil Empire” speech. It was great stuff, then as now: “Let us pray for the salvation of all those who live in that totalitarian darkness — pray that they will discover the joy of knowing God. But until they do, let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the state, declare its omnipotence over individual men and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world.”
A bracing tonic it was. It evoked embarrassment and patronizing twitters from the diplomats in the major capitals but, as President George W. Bush said at the National Cathedral, in the Soviet gulag and the Gdansk shipyards the word was passed around that the leader of the free world understood that they were entitled to freedom, too.
The Life
It was a truly bipartisan week in Washington, everyone united in saying good things, as the dictum has it, about the dead. There was a difference though — conservatives lauded his philosophy and policies while liberals emphasized his good humor and comforting presence. Lady Thatcher eulogized Reagan by drawing a connection between the two, saying that his “gracefulness spoke of a deeper grace” — his religious faith.
When it came time for the Gospel, read by Cardinal McCarrick, it was from the Sermon on the Mount, with Jesus telling his followers to be the light of the world and that a city upon a hill cannot be hid. In the agreeable mix of civil religion and Christian faith the Episcopal Church carries off with such great élan, that light and that shining city were applied to Ronald Reagan and his political vision.
Catholics would blanch from quite so strong an identification of the two, but it was a cause of thanksgiving that President Reagan was buried as the Christian he was. The light shone brighter for his passing our way.
Father Raymond J. de Souza filed this story from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Raymond J. De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Reagan's Catholic Connections DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:As we marked Ronald Reagan's passing June 5, many questions were asked about both the man and his faith.
A devout Christian, Reagan was raised in the Disciples of Christ Church. Yet the Protestant president was open to other faiths, especially Catholicism.
Reagan's embrace of Catholics began at home with his father, Jack Reagan. Jack was an apathetic Catholic who left the religious rearing of his two children to his wife, Nelle, a deeply Christian woman and a Protestant.
Ironically, whereas Reagan was raised in a household marked by a distinct lack of Catholicism, later, as president, he was surrounded by serious Catholics, allies in his efforts to change the world. Specifically, Reagan's assault on atheistic Soviet communism was aided by a number of key Catholics, such as CIA director William Casey, speechwriter Tony Dolan, Secretary of State Al Haig, Ambassador Vernon Walters and others. Two men in particular were pivotal: Reagan's first two national security advisers, Richard Allen and William Clark.
Four years before Reagan's presidency began, he met with Allen in Los Angeles. Allen never forgot what Reagan told him that January afternoon in 1977: “Dick, my idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, some would say simplistic. It is this: We win and they lose. What do you think of that?” That was the plan.
Reagan's most crucial adviser was the man who would replace Allen: William Clark. “Judge Clark,” as he is known, implemented the Reagan administration's core policy directives crucial to confronting the Soviet empire. Clark is so devout in his faith that he has built a beautiful chapel on his property in Paso Robles, Calif., which he has opened to the community. This dedicated Catholic was Reagan's closest spiritual partner. The two men frequently prayed together.
However, Reagan's Cold War crusade was influenced by more than advisers and strategies. Reagan felt a sense of divine calling in his attack on Soviet communism. And that sense was reinforced in three meetings he had with prominent Catholics.
On March 30, 1981, Ronald Reagan almost died at the hands of a bullet fired by John Hinckley Jr. The president was sure that God had spared him for a larger purpose. His feeling was affirmed on April 17, Good Friday, by New York's Cardinal Terence Cooke.
“The hand of God was upon you,” Cardinal Cooke told Reagan. Reagan grew very serious. “I know,” he replied, before confiding to the cardinal: “I have decided that whatever time I have left is for him.”
Reagan's sense was reaffirmed in June 1981. He and Nancy Reagan and a few selected guests had a private meal with Mother Teresa. The servant to Calcutta's poor made an immediate impact upon the host.
“Mr. President Reagan, do you know that we stayed up for two straight nights praying for you after you were shot?” she stated, pointing to a younger sister who was joining them. “We prayed very hard for you to live.” Reagan thanked her. During the meal, she looked at Reagan and said pointedly: “You have suffered the passion of the cross and have received grace. There is a purpose to this. This has happened to you at this time because your country and the world need you.” Nancy Reagan dissolved into tears. Her husband was almost speechless.
A year later, in June 1982, Reagan had an even more powerful encounter — with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. The Polish Pope rightly perceived in Reagan a Protestant who was friendly to Catholicism and who counted many Catholics among his intimates. Of course, John Paul was overjoyed when Reagan became the first president to extend diplomatic recognition to the Vatican — a move long resisted by previous presidents. Both men shared a hatred of communism.
The two talked alone in the Vatican Library. They discussed the assassination attempts against them the previous year — only six weeks apart. Reagan said to the Holy Father: “Look how the evil forces were put in our way and how Providence intervened.”
Carl Bernstein and Marco Politi, in their biography of the Pope, dramatically conclude: “For the Pope, Reagan had been … an instrument in the hands of God.” The feeling was mutual. According to a number of sources, the two men confided in one another that they believed God had spared their lives for a special mission, which they came to see as the defeat of godless communism in the Soviet bloc.
Following the meeting, the two men and their teams agreed to aid the Solidarity movement in Poland, aiming to keep it alive as the potential wedge that could split the Soviet Union's empire in Eastern Europe. Each man believed Solidarity could be the splinter to crack the Iron Curtain and hasten the downfall of the communist bloc. They were right. And the rest is history.
Again, how ironic that this man who was raised by an apathetic Catholic father would be surrounded by the most devout Catholics throughout his presidency, both inside and outside the White House. And it was those Catholics who were crucial to Reagan's life mission and enduring legacy: victory in the Cold War.
Paul Kengor is author of God and Ronald Reagan.
This article is used by permission from CatholicExchange.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Paul Kengor ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Open Mouths DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:When asked for the main reasons I became Catholic seven years ago, I provide two: the Eucharist and the authority of the Church.
Those reasons have been on my mind lately as I've watched many in the media fume over the pronouncements of various bishops that politicians who support abortion should cease receiving holy Communion. In some cases you'd think the bishops had demanded that pro-death politicians commit ritual suicide on the front steps of their local parish. “How dare a bishop tell a senator how to vote!”
Never mind that the bishops aren't telling politicians how to vote. They're merely asking that they refrain from receiving Eucharist if they support killing unborn children.
Recently, Archbishop John Vlazny of Portland, Ore., wrote a rather mild letter explaining that one's communion with the Church “is clearly violated when one publicly opposes serious Church teaching.”
One Catholic, who claimed to be a convert from Protestantism, wasn't going to stand for the archbishop's heavy-handed request that Catholics be Catholic.
“The sacrament [of the Eucharist] is a symbol of my relationship with God, not with the Church,” he infallibly remarked. “I've never looked at Communion, whether given by a priest or minister, as belonging to them. They're simply sharing something that is not theirs.”
Such insolent pronouncements boggle the mind. The remark about the Eucharist is doubly sad since the man further explained that he would not leave his parish because he enjoys the “strong sense of community, ritual and scripturally based teachings.”
I wonder why he ever bothered to become Catholic. After all, becoming Catholic involves entering into a relationship with the Catholic Church. And he has to go to a Catholic parish to receive the Eucharist. Oh, and don't forget that little detail about Jesus, whom this man receives in the Eucharist whether he believes it or not, being the head and bridegroom of the Church.
“He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him,” Jesus states in John 6. Those are shocking words. Various Protestant commentaries deny this had any literal meaning and confidently explained that this symbolically expressed Jesus’ desire to “have a deeply personal relationship” with his disciples.
At the end of the chapter many of the disciples walk away from this supposedly “symbolic” teaching. Jesus asks the rest if they also will leave. Peter, the first pope, responds, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.”
One implication that can be drawn from this is that we are either with Jesus or against him. We cannot support the killing of the unborn and then receive into our bodies the One who condemned the killing of the innocent.
Another bothersome passage is 1 Corinthians 11. In it, St. Paul admonishes the Christians in Corinth for improperly receiving holy Communion. (“How dare he!” The Corinthian Gazette lamented. “Who does he think he is?”)
The apostle writes: “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.” And: “[W]hoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord.”
Apparently some things are more sacred than politics.
Carl E. Olson writes from Eugene, Oregon.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Carl E. Olson ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Allegheny Uprising of the Heart DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:We come once a year. Every Father's Day weekend, you will find us here at a campground in the Allegheny Highlands of Virginia. In the town of Craig Springs, to be exact.
We come from all over the eastern United States. We come with family or by ourselves, with children or with grandchildren, with spouses or with friends. Pilgrims all, we come to pray for fathers living and deceased, and for their families.
We've been coming to this humble yet hallowed site for 28 years now — here where, until recently, the only Catholic Mass in all of Craig County was hosted. For this is a Catholic pilgrimage to a campground established by the Disciples of Christ, a Protestant denomination. This is a Catholic pilgrimage that remembers three Baptist brothers who died of multiple sclerosis and their fourth brother who died in a car accident. This is a Catholic pilgrimage that has grown bigger as the roads to Craig Springs have grown better.
As the Catholic population of the South slowly but steadily increases (it's currently at about 4% of the population), the North Carolina Pilgrimage to the Allegheny Highlands — the band of which the Gilder-sleeves are a part — increases in leaps and bounds. This year we'll send more than 100 to the faith-filled, family-centered weekend.
What will draw us to the campground at Craig Springs? There's no air conditioning but lots of fresh air; little privacy but lots of private time; no appointments, meetings or occupational labor but lots of activities, community time and God's work. The pilgrimage is placed under the patronage of our Blessed Mother as a spiritual safeguard for our children, youth and families. Throughout the weekend, we pray for family unity and peace, intentions that are dear to Pope John Paul II.
As Msgr. John Williams, a priest of the Diocese of Raleigh, N.C., and the founder and leader of our group explains, this is not a retreat. “This is a pilgrimage,” he says. “A pilgrimage is where you have to work to get there, God works on you while you're there, and then you go home and fulfill the job God gave you while you were there.”
The Catholic Difference
The annual Father's Day pilgrimage got its start in 1977 when Msgr. Williams, then a young seminarian, organized a group of parishioners from Blessed Sacrament Parish in Burlington, N.C., for a four-hour drive to southwest Virginia. The plan was to honor the memory of three multiple sclerosis victims from the same family whom Msgr. Williams had gotten to know when working at a camp for special-needs and handicapped children. (Some members of the boys’ Baptist family, including their father, still live in the area and join our pilgrimage on Saturday for dinner and Mass.)
That small band of original pilgrims brought with them a statue of the Infant of Prague, hoping to build a shrine in the cemetery where the brothers are buried (just down the road in Paint Bank, Va.). With the permission of the bemused Craig County government, an Austrian-style wayside shrine was placed in the public cemetery.
There it stands to this day, thanks to a crew of dedicated pilgrims who spend part of their day on the Saturday of pilgrimage maintaining the structure. It's a striking sight in a county that has no other visible Catholic presence.
The schedule for the pilgrimage has remained essentially the same throughout the past 28 years. Many arrive Friday afternoon to enjoy the surroundings and the tantalizing, Southern-style supper. Then there's a swim, a prayer service and a campfire with songs, marshmallows and companionship — or, as our Baptist friends would call it, “Christian fellowship.” And, always, plenty of quiet spaces for prayer and contemplation.
Saturday brings more of the same, along with sports, chores, rest and relaxation. One group of pilgrims goes to the Infant of Prague shrine while another gets the Glass House ready for evening Mass. The Glass House, a building from the 1920s with windows on all sides, gets transformed into a holy place with the addition of flowers, newly shined brass and devotional images of patron saints. These holy relics are prayerfully placed to create a Catholic devotional space out of this one-time dance hall. A place of honor is reserved for an image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, patron-ess of the pilgrimage.
After Mass, pilgrims enjoy a little cake, coffee and entertainment. This is followed by nocturnal exposition and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, also known as “night watch.”
Come Sunday, some head for home after Mass and breakfast while others continue to swim or play, work around the camp and then head to the Infant of Prague shrine for final prayers. The sacrament of reconciliation is available throughout the weekend, especially before the vigil Mass and during the night watch with Our Lord in his Eucharistic presence.
Sanctified Spa
Not everyone who comes here knows that this site, which is about an hour west of Roanoke, is on the grounds of a turn-of-the-century health spa. The springs for which the camp is named still flow. People came from far and wide in the late 1800s and early 1900s to drink this pure, clean, “medicinal” water.
Since 1955, members of the Disciples of Christ denomination have run this property as a camp and conference center. The original hotel and lodge are currently used for lodging some of the pilgrims, while there are cabins for the families. All dining — Southern country cooking at its finest — is done in the large dining hall in the original lodge.
Fine as the atmosphere and amenities are, this is still a pilgrimage. It's more than a weekend in the woods, more than a chance to renew friendships and make new acquaintances. As Msgr. Williams says, the purpose is the same today as it was in 1977: building up families with the sacramental life and rich devotional traditions of the Catholic faith, in a healthy countryside with wide possibilities for recreation and relaxation.
Many of those who came here as children in those early years now bring their own children. Some of those who came as Protestant friends have now joined the Catholic Church and continue to come, bringing potential converts with them.
For all who come, this annual pilgrimage is the Father's Day gift that keeps on giving all year long.
Mary C. Gildersleeve writes from Central, South Carolina.
----- EXCERPT: Father's Day pilgrimage to Craig Springs, Va. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mary C. Gildersleeve ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, JUNE 20
Quest for King Arthur
History Channel, 9 p.m.
Young and old alike in the Western world have loved the legends about the Knights of the Round Table for centuries. Do these tales of chivalry have any basis in fact?
MONDAY, JUNE 21
History Detectives
PBS, 9 p.m.
This investigative series' second season opens with probes of the ironclad submarine that is on display in New Orleans; a pipe said to have belonged to the Sioux leader Red Cloud; and a house in Union, N.J., that inventor Thomas Edison might have designed.
MONDAY, JUNE 21
Liberty! The American Revolution
PBS, 10 p.m.
“The Reluctant Revolutionaries,” the first installment of this sixpart series, deals with the years 1763-1775, when American patriots in each colony banded together to resist British infringements on their God-given rights and liberties. Next Monday's chapter, “Blows Must Decide,” covers the opening of hostilities in 1775 and 1776. Each show includes dramatic readings and interviews with scholars. First broadcast in 1997.
TUESDAY, JUNE 22
Scientific American Frontiers
PBS, 9 p.m.
This episode, “The Dark Side of the Universe,” chronicles discoveries in recent years that suggest most of the universe consists of unseen dark matter and dark energy.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23
The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt
History Channel, 8 p.m.
This show chronicles the recent discovery of a “new” species of dinosaur in Egypt.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23
Rebels and Redcoats: How Britain Lost America
PBS, 9 p.m.
Tonight and next Wednesday, this two-part special on America's War of Independence tells the story from the point of view of the losing side, the British and the Loyalists. Tonight's two-hour segment spotlights the Boston Massacre, Lexington and Concord, Washington's crossing the Delaware, the British defeat at Saratoga and France's alliance with America. Next Wednesday's show covers operations in the South, the battle of King's Mountain, the French fleet off Virginia and the surrender at Yorktown in 1781.
THURSDAY, JUNE 24
Guy Pearce's Ultimate Guide to Tigers
Animal Planet, 8 p.m.
The Australia-bred actor tells us what he's learned about tigers.
FRI.-SAT., JUNE 25-26
St. Josemaría Escrivá and Opus Dei
EWTN
Films and specials — on Friday at 4:30 a.m./6 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., and Saturday at 2 a.m., 4 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. — describe the life and work of the founder of the personal prelature Opus Dei.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daniel J. Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Defeat the Dark Side of '24/7' Devices DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:Not long ago, I read about a poll that asked people, “What technology do you hate yet cannot do without?”
The No. 1 answer was not computers but cell phones. Yes, those wonderfully convenient cell phones have become woefully burdensome. Before, you could go on vacation without worrying about being disturbed. With a cell phone, you can never really get away.
I heard about a religious service during which someone in the congregation received a call. The preacher stopped his sermon and said, “Unless that's Jesus calling, you'd better tell them to call back later.”
Cell phones ring everywhere. Now even the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass isn't out of bounds. How many people get a call during Mass and walk out to take the call?
Worse still, cell phones are becoming the technological version of the do-it-all Swiss Army Knife. Not only do the devices let you make and receive phone calls no matter where you are, but they can also provide you with Internet access, e-mail, a camera, games, stock quotes and weather reports. And who knows what features they'll build into them next.
For all its benefits, technology has added exponentially to the daily demands being made on many people's time. Many people are constantly “on call.”
I believe the immediate access is burning some people out. Sure, it's possible to enjoy yourself during summer vacation by turning off your cell phone and not bothering at all with computers. But in the back of your mind, there is always that “What if?” question. “What if I get an important phone call, voice mail or e-mail?”
My sister and her husband were on vacation down here in Florida. But they still had to check on their work e-mails and voice mails. Evidently, in today's workplace, if you don't check your messages by the time you get back to your job, a thousand messages could be waiting for you. I remember reading about the founder of a technology company who spent his vacations in a log cabin without electricity in order to get away from all forms of technology. I think he was on to something.
As psychologists and other mental-health therapists have been saying for some time now, it's easy for people to get into addictive behavior patterns with these new forms of go-anywhere communication. Wired people seem to feel that, since they can communicate 24/7, they should communicate 24/7. There's the strong sense that all messages have to be answered immediately or at the soonest-possible opportunity. Fail to respond and, within hours or a day, you will get a repeat message asking: “Did you get my message?” These follow-ups, of course, only add to your backlog.
Meanwhile most of us have begun to loathe voice mail. Some companies are now advertising that “You get to talk to a real, live human being” when you call their help line.
The Royal Mail Group in the United Kingdom (www.royalmailgroup.com) publishes a Business Seduction Guide to help combat communications anxiety. According to its research released this year, 1 in 4 workers can't bear to be away from their work desk for more than an hour for fear of missing important business communications. Worse, 13% couldn't tear themselves away from their desks for more than 15 minutes, so concerned were they about communiqués building up in their absence.
Now remember, we are talking about the English, who are known for not easily getting frazzled over such things. Imagine what happens to hard-charging Americans.
A third of respondents in the British study said the communications barrage negatively impacts their efficiency and productivity. Big offenders for unnecessary work disturbance included telephones (some 48% of respondents reported these interfere with their tasks at hand), face-to-face exchanges (16%) and cell phones (13%). Least intrusive: text messaging (3%), printed letters (2%) and handwritten letters (1%). This shows that the written word allows workers the space and time they need to receive and reply at their discretion — and to get on with more pressing priorities.
When it came to looking at what forms of communication require the quickest response time, phone calls (both land and mobile) ranked No. 1. This was followed by e-mail, with 31% of respondents feeling a reply was necessary within an hour.
Tim Rivett, Royal Mail's head of small business, said, “The research highlights how, in today's age of mass communication, people are constantly feeling swamped, much of it unnecessary.”
Unnecessary! There's wisdom in that word. For, if all this “over-communicating” is going on in the workplace, much of it over trivial matters, it's a good bet it's also happening at home. A way has to be found to separate the necessary from the unnecessary among the messages constantly coming at us from all directions. Certainly we can screen out most, if not all, the outside intrusions. That would free us to better communicate with the people with whom we share our homes — our own families.
And we would do well to make a concerted effort to protect our spiritual life, leaving us some time to pray, unwind — and, at the very least, attend holy Mass without interruption.
Brother John Raymond, co-founder of the Monks of Adoration, writes from Venice, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:Seabiscuit (2003)
Nostalgic and good-hearted, Seabiscuit is an inspiring tale of flawed but sympathetic heroes and no real villains — a race-horse story that's not about beating the other horse but about overcoming adversity.
Adapted by director Gary Ross from the acclaimed book by Laura Hillenbrand, Seabiscuit is based on the uplifting, real-life story of a no-account racehorse whose second chance at a championship captured the imagination of Depression-era America. Seabiscuit's improbable comeback and underdog fighting spirit resonated with a nation looking for a comeback of its own.
This populist appeal was enhanced by the men in the horse's life: affable novice buyer Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges), overgrown jockey Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire) and eccentric trainer Tom Smith (Chris Cooper). Seabiscuit's rehabilitation represents a second chance for each of these men.
Though not without flaws, including an unfortunate brothel sequence, Seabiscuit has a great subject and a great story, and its winning theme of the little guy with a champion's heart may leave viewers feeling great as well.
Content advisory: A brothel sequence with some comically intended lewd behavior and a brief bedroom scene (no explicit nudity or sexual activity); remarriage after divorce; crude language and profanity; sports-related violence and injuries. Adult viewing.
Open City [Roma, città aperta] (1945)
Newsreels brought home the actual sights and sounds of World War II like no other war in history. Roberto Rossellini's Open City, developed in Rome during the Nazi occupation and shot in the still war-torn city streets shortly after the Nazi withdrawal, stunned audiences the world over because they recognized in it an unmediated authenticity utterly unlike earlier, more conventional World War II dramas (e.g., Sahara).
Rossellini shot with available light on real locations in the battered Roman streets, in part because the studios had been bombed. Lacking the funds to hire professionals, he used mostly amateur actors who gave remarkably unmannered, naturalistic performances. Just as important to the film — and to the new neorealist movement — are the humanistic values that unite Italian Catholics (represented by a heroic priest) and even communists against the Nazi occupation. One weakness is the period subtitles, which are inexplicably spotty; the story is easy to follow, but some dialogue is lost. One of the 15 films on the Vatican film list in the Values category.
Content advisory: Depictions of wartime torture and violence, including the execution of a priest; references to nonmarital pregnancy.
Our Hospitality (1923)
Buster Keaton's first feature-length comedy is one of his best, a comic gem set against a backdrop of a Hatfield-McCoy-style family feud. Raised far from the scene of generations of “McKay-Canfield” violence, young Willie McKay (Keaton) knows nothing about the bad blood between the two families — until the time comes for him to go home and claim his inheritance.
Of course there's a girl (Natalie Talmadge), and of course she's a Canfield, and of course Willie's determination to stay away from the Canfields doesn't work out quite as planned. Much of the humor involves a riff on Southern hospitality as the Canfields decide that they can't kill Willie while he's their guest — i.e., while he's under their roof. A catand-mouse game ensues, with the Canfield men trying to get Willie to step outside while he tries desperately not to be caught outdoors — all under the nose of the blissfully ignorant Virginia, who has no idea who her gentleman friend is.
Keaton was given to grand comic gestures, a flair seen in a spectacular throwaway gag in which a demolished dam and a huge cascade of water inadvertently provide momentary cover for Keaton's hapless hero.
Content advisory: Family feud plot; brief comic depiction of domestic violence.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Monthly Web Picks DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:This month I want to look at some Catholic financial sites.
Religious Funds at religious-funds.com has the mission of shedding light on a rather small and unique sector of the financial world — mutual funds. The fund families appearing on their site encourage “socially responsible investing.”
Catholic Home Loan at catholichomeloans.com guarantees the lowest interest rates, and part of its profit goes to the charity of your choice. It deals with refinancing, purchases, cash-out and home equity.
For advice on family finances, Catholic Answers sells The Catholic Answers Guide to Family Finances, by Register Family Matters columnist Phil Lenahan, at catholic.com/seminars/lenahan.asp. Lenahan, director of media and finance for Catholic Answers, spent years with an international accounting firm and was a financial executive in a Fortune 300 company. So I think he is well qualified to help with family finances.
Some might want to look at the “Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines” from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as a moral guide for their own investments. Released last November, it's now available at usccb.org/finance/srig.htm.
Finances can be a major source of family and marital stress. The Center for Peace in the Family at peaceinthefamily.org offers an experienced Catholic counselor to help you sort out these problems. You can also take a marriage inventory, explore various resources or make a prayer request.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Faith, Reason and the Bioethical Brouhaha DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:Peter Augustine Lawler, one of three recent additions to President Bush's Council on Bioethics, is the Dana professor and chairman of government and international studies at Berry College in Alabama.
Born in Alexandria, Va., he received a doctorate in government from the University of Virginia. He is editor of the journal Perspectives on Political Science. He spoke with Register correspondent Stephen Vincent.
Why were you chosen for the bioethics council?
I was recommended to the White House by [council chairman] Leon Kass. When I was interviewed by the White House, I was asked only one substantive question: How do your views differ from those of Kass? What do you offer the council that it does not already have?
The council has addressed cloning and genetic engineering. What's ahead?
My understanding is that the council will turn to issues such as neuroscience and aging. The new focus may well be primarily what sort of virtue will be required to live in a world where people live much longer and healthier lives progressively more detached from the joys and responsibilities of family life. It might also involve end-of-life issues. This remains to be determined.
Does the Catholic faith play a role in your thinking?
As I understand it, the Catholic, natural-law view is that revelation completes what we know through reason and does not contradict it. When we Catholics deliberate with our fellow citizens, we do so primarily through what we all can know through reason about our natures. Strangely enough, we Catholics have much more confidence in reason than most ethicists and scientists today, who believe ethical judgments are only value judgments or merely emotive.
So for the purposes of this council, I can't confine myself to what Catholics know as Catholics, but nothing I will think or say will be contrary to what Catholics know as Catholics. So there's no question of imposing the Catholic faith on American political life but only, I hope, of illuminating and defending what any human being should be able to see as true.
Some argue that morality or faith should play no part in scientific progress.
There's no way of separating scientific progress from moral regulation. Nobody really believes that what's invented or discovered will inevitably serve all the various goods that constitute human life. And nobody really believes that technology or biotechnology will be able to free us to live “designer” lives. Believers as believers have to view scientific progress theologically, but it's not reasonable to believe a merely theological view will prevail in the public-policy arena.
If embryos, for example, are to be protected, it will be because of what any human being should be able to see as true about the nature of embryos. So public arguments about moral and political regulation have to be natural-law arguments.
The council has been unable to come to unanimous decisions about cloning, with some members calling for a ban on all cloning and others allowing research cloning.
What practical good is the council doing?
The council's unanimous opposition to reproductive cloning is not insignificant. The council is criticized both for its lack of diversity and its lack of unanimity; both facts are said to undermine its credibility. But it really is quite diverse, and the meetings are often very contentious. So the consensual recommendations are bound to be somewhat disappointing to everyone.
The practical results remain to be seen, but the goal is to provide public policy guidance. The transcripts of the meetings do seem pretty theoretical. But shouldn't our public policy be informed by deliberation by excellent philosophical and theological minds? Anyone — the president, a member of Congress, a voter — who wants to be informed on bioethical issues could rather quickly get up to speed on the issues and policy alternatives by reading these reports, especially with the reader the council put out [“Being Human”], which is full of well-chosen literary, philosophical and theological excerpts.
Catholics who doubt the good intentions animating this council should read Kass’ Life, Liberty and the Defense of Dignity, which is an amazing mixture of deep philosophical reflection and public-policy guidance. It might be the best introduction to the problem of technology in our time. And anyone who thinks Kass is a merely secular philosopher should read his big book on the Book of Genesis.
Is the council making history?
So far, the council has issued five quite informative and challenging reports that should aid citizens and political leaders in thinking about bio-ethical issues. The recommendations of the council, if followed, would put sound limits on biotechnological development.
Catholics can't be satisfied with the relatively permissive stance on research cloning. But research cloning is not at all endorsed; as far as I can tell nothing is endorsed that is contrary to Catholic teaching. And the recommendation to ban all reproductive cloning is quite significant and quite contrary to the libertarian drift of our time. In general, the council's reports all oppose a thoughtless libertarian drift, and they are among the most morally sensitive and profound government documents ever.
Catholics should pay close attention to the personal statements of Robert George of Princeton University, who unfailingly and quite brilliantly introduces the Catholic “voice” into the record. All in all, I think these reports do have genuine historical and political significance.
Some scientists will go ahead with cloning and other research despite the council's findings. Does this make your work futile?
Much of the council's work is concerned with thinking about what sort of virtue will be required to live in the biotechnological world to come. It's not futile to help people do the thinking they're going to be stuck with doing.
There's no doubt that much bio-technological progress is going to occur more or less unimpeded, and much should occur. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with living longer and safer lives. And we can't say in advance that outlawing cloning will be futile. We have the responsibility, of course, to try to do what we can.
You refer to St. Thomas Aquinas often in your work. What do such “old” thinkers have to say about such modern, complex issues we face today?
The old thinkers are relevant insofar as they teach the truth. Human beings are the animals fitted by nature to be open to the truth about all things. This openness gives us certain distinctive and high natural joys and miseries, and it gives us certain very definite responsibilities. What distinguishes us as human beings is both real and good, if also quite flawed or imperfect.
This view — which is often called philosophical and moral realism — was best articulated by St. Thomas Aquinas. A particularly lucid and deep proponent of it in our time was the American Catholic philosopher-novelist Walker Percy, and it also informs the literary artistry of Flannery O'Connor.
You seem to downplay Kass’ warning about the advent of a post-human future.
The view that we could engineer our humanity out of existence can be traced to writers such as Nietzsche and [Aldous] Huxley. I doubt we have that power. All evidence so far is that we primarily have the power only to make our existences more contingent or “homeless.” The more we are dependent on technology, the more our fundamental mood will be anxiety, not contentment. As we come to make our existences more objectively secure, the more paranoid we get about our security. So healthy Americans today are paranoid about diet and exercise, and they over-regulate their children's lives.
The main result of biotechnological progress will be increasing self-obsession and personal alienation. This is both good and bad news. The bad news is that we will in some ways be more miserable than ever. The good is that we will have in some ways more evidence than ever of our human freedom and so of the possibility that we are contingent creatures. More than ever we will need faith to be happy and make sense of what we really know.
Stephen Vincent is based in Wallingford, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Stephen Vincent ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Prayers to Purgatory DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:Thirty-Day Devotions for the Holy Souls
by Susan Tassone
OSV, 2004
159 pages, $6.95
To order: (800) 348-2440
or www.osv.com
Susan Tassone, tireless champion of the temporary citizens of purgatory, has given Catholics another great tool — one that's sure to help many holy souls toward the completion of their journey.
She's getting to be quite the authority on the subject, having spoken widely and penned three previous books with the words “holy souls” in the title. This time around Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago, sets the tone in a foreword that concisely synopsizes the “why” of this category of prayer.
“Susan Tassone reminds us of those linked to us by faith and grace who now, after their death, await the vision of God in the purifying situation of purgatory,” he writes. “They have died in God's grace and friendship, and are indeed assured of eternal salvation but at death were not fully aligned with God's will for their purification.”
“Purgatory is a topic that cannot be evaded if we are serious about the afterlife,” he adds, “which is integral to Christian teaching and which confronts us with a future that depends on our relationship with God in the moment of our death.”
Who among us couldn't use a resource that shows how to pray with special fervor for those we love who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith? It only seems right to me since I, myself, am not perfect. One day I, too, will be grateful for the prayers of the mystical body of Christ as I “cross over” from this life to the next.
Tassone reminds us that our prayers and sacrifices can shorten our loved ones’ time in purgatory, just as good behavior can shorten a prisoner's sentence. What a beautiful thought — not to mention a great privilege and an awesome responsibility.
Especially helpful are specific prayers that will console the person praying as they aid the soul being prayed for. These are supported by scriptural passages, reflections from saints and answers to the most commonly asked questions about purgatory.
Perhaps most useful, though, is the month-long program of prayer Tassone suggests. As if to keep us motivated to stick with it, she reminds us that, from the earliest days of the Church, the faithful have been encouraged to pray for the dead. “This pious practice was preached with great zeal by all the great Church Fathers and Doctors,” she writes.
We even get a quick history lesson as we consider the origins of the practice of celebrating Mass on 30 consecutive days for the faithful departed. It turns out Pope St. Gregory the Great began the custom; hence the moniker “Gregorian Masses.”
Later Tassone shares a memorable quote from St. Augustine on the holy souls:
“We have loved them dearly in life, so let us not abandon them until we have conducted them by our prayers into the house of the Lord.”
This treasury of prayers and meditations is a gift to share with those who've lost someone close, whether the loss happened recently or some time ago. For everyone else, I offer this thought: The day will come for each of us when we'll either turn to a resource like this one — or wish we knew where to turn.
Bill Zalot writes from Levittown, Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Bill Zalot ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:No NAACP at CUA
CHRONICLE.COM, June 4 — The Catholic University of America has denied a student's request to start a chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on campus because some of the organization's positions conflict with Catholic teaching.
The school also said starting the chapter on campus overlaps with two already-existing groups for black students, the website for the Chronicle of Higher Education reported.
The NAACP's national organization supports abortion, but that factor was not the only one in deciding to deny the request, a school spokesman said, but it is “one of their planks with which we strongly take issue.”
Dead Theologians Alive
LA CROSSE TRIBUNE (Wisconsin), May 26 — Each week students in La Crosse, Wis. — home of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse — meet to discuss the early Church Fathers and to delve into the lives of the saints.
The Dead Theologians Society, started in Ohio by a pair of youth-group workers who have since moved to the Diocese of La Crosse, draws about 10 to 12 students each week. And students are beginning to see how it's impacting their faith.
One student, Erika Deniger, said meetings have helped her better understand her Catholic faith at a time when many question it.
“Everything people are questioning now,” she said, “people have questioned before and found answers to.”
‘Shame on Seton Hall’
Archbishop John Myers of Newark, N.J., head of the university's board of trustees, also voiced his opposition May 26 to Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, who was awarded the Sandra Day O'Connor Medal of Honor. Barry in 2000 voted to overturn New Jersey's ban on late-term abortions, the Seton Hall student newspaper reported.
The protestors held signs that read “Shame on Seton Hall” and circled the entrance to the law school.
Standing on Principle
AVE MARIA LAW SCHOOL, June 1 — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, a Catholic, told graduating students at the Ave Maria Law School in Ypsilanti, Mich., to act out of principle in their coming careers.
“Do it for principle rather than self-interest,” Thomas told graduates May 16. “Do it for principle rather than for prosperity. Do it for principle rather than popularity. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?”
According to a press release from the law school, graduates will move on to positions in the U.S. Department of Justice, with federal judges and in various law firms.
Record Enrollment
Chaminade will see a 6% increase from last year, from 1,065 undergraduates to 1,130 in the fall, the Honolulu Advertiser reported. Overall, undergraduate enrollment at the university has increased 75% since 1995.
The school attributes its growth to recruitment efforts on the West Coast. Its four recruiters have visited schools from Alaska to New Mexico.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Time Out for Troublemaker DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:Family Matters
I've heard that, as a rule of thumb, the length of a timeout for misbehaving preschoolers should be equal to one minute for each year of age. What do you think of this standard?
Back in my early days as a shrink, I couldn't keep this rule straight. Was it one minute per year of age — or one year per minute of age?
Seriously, before we talk, let's talk terms. Psychologically speaking, “time out” is shorthand for “time out from reinforcement.” The theory is that timing a child out separates him or her from whatever factors might be propelling the “inappropriate” conduct — your attention, his manipulation, a sibling, a parent. Right.
All in all, time out is good discipline. It's fast, easy, ever-ready and can be repeated as often as necessary. That said, the one-minute-per-year rule needs some major clarifications.
The rationale for the rule is that the attention span of a preschooler is pretty short (true, except when he's being visually and electronically entertained). Therefore, time out can be short and still be effective (true, provided the child stays put, the time-out spot is boring and the parent is willing to do this hundreds of times during a period of months). Because many experts are real uncomfortable with strong discipline — for them, it smacks of that dreaded word authority — their advice is cautious. The child shouldn't be disciplined, they say, beyond what is developmentally comfortable.
But what is developmentally comfortable? Will five minutes psychologically overload a 4-year-old? Further, who says a little discomfort isn't a good teacher? After all, it's only boredom.
A second consideration: Some, perhaps most, preschoolers aren't even quiet for the first several (or more) minutes in a timeout. What kind of discipline is it that says, in effect, “You go over there, verbally and emotionally explode for a while, and then come out”? In such scenarios, time out isn't a discipline. It's a forum for a fit. Time-out minutes must be quiet minutes.
Then, too, some infractions deserve more time out than others. For run-of-the-mill misconduct, several minutes might be sufficient to teach a lesson. For the bigger stuff, a stronger, leaner message needs to be conveyed. I'm sure you don't mean to communicate, “Now, Rocky, no hitting your sister in the head. Time out, please, for four minutes. Your sister's head is worth four minutes.”
Also, time is relative. It depends on where the time is served. Sitting on a chair in the middle of the kitchen, watching the panorama of family life go by, isn't real aversive — unless one's family is extremely boring. Corner time out, on the other hand, can be shorter because facing a corner is pretty uneventful. A corner needs less time to work than a seat with a view.
To sum up: One year per minute of age is a fine rule of thumb to follow. But its effectiveness will vary greatly with the degree of a child's cooperation, the seriousness of his infraction and the setting of the time-out space.
Dr. Ray Guarendi is a father of 10,
a psychologist and an author.
He can be reached at DrRay.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dr. Ray Guarendi ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Helping Dad DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:Dad, have you ever relied on your wife to help you figure out how to relate to one of your children?
Well, don't feel bad about it. That's exactly what she's supposed to do. Chew on this food for thought this Father's Day.
Most dads try to get into the hearts and minds of their children on their own but find it's not as easy as it looks. Because of their commitments to work and other activities, dads tend to spend less time with their kids than moms do. In addition, during the past several decades, fathers have been losing their place of respect in the family.
This is due, in part, to the increased number of single-parent households — a phenomenon that removes the father from the home more often than not. Even more dangerous is the influence of the media, which turn dads into buffoons who repeatedly screw up and whose only purpose is to be the brunt of jokes. This stacks the deck against dads’ capabilities and motivation to be close to their children.
Along with more time with the kids, another advantage mothers tend to enjoy is a more finely tuned intuition for understanding where the children are “coming from,” emotion-wise, and for communicating on their level. That's why moms are such an important factor in binding dads with their kids: They're the liaisons who bridge the gap.
“The child has to be led to his or her father,” said Father Joseph Kentenich, founder of the Schoenstatt Marian Apostolic Movement, in his book The Family at the Service of Life: Recollection Days for Couples (reprinted by St. Paul's Press in 2000). Father Kentenich died in 1968, but his movement of moral and religious renewal has spread throughout the world.
“As far as the mother is concerned, the father must always remain the focal point,” he continued. “If this is not the case, the mother will soon ally herself with the child in opposition to the father, and that destroys family life. … The river [of love] flowing from God the Father's heart passes through the mother's heart into the child's heart. From there it must flow into the heart of the child's physical father and return to the heart of God the Father.”
Mom needs to place the authority of dad in the foreground, Father Kentenich taught. Dad must always be seen as the head of the family, with mom as the heart and the children at the center. That means mom must uphold the authority of dad while at the same time drawing the children closer to him in love.
On the other hand, Father Kentenich warned, dad must not take advantage of his place as head of the family by becoming demanding and unyielding. Authority must not be equated with tyranny. Dad must become a reflection of God the Father for his children. Mom must become a reflection of the Blessed Mother for her children, leading them to their physical father just as the Blessed Mother leads all of us to our heavenly Father.
“It is the task of the mother to protect the father's authority, even if the father has moral weaknesses and failings,” Father Kentenich wrote. “That describes the Nazareth Family. … St. Joseph was at the center of the Holy Family even though he was less perfect than the Blessed Mother and Jesus.”
Lunch Dates With Dad
For Joe and Judy Yank, following that part of the Holy Family's model means maintaining an ongoing effort to keep communications open between Joe and the kids — Rachel, 15, Gabrielle, 14, and Thomas, 12.
“I talk with Joe every lunch hour to touch base on how the kids are doing,” explains Judy, who home schools her children. “If there's a problem or someone needs some encouragement, they can always talk with Papa at that time.”
Every now and then, Judy and the kids will meet Joe for lunch, even though it's a half-hour drive each way. And, to keep Joe fresh in the hearts and minds of the children, Judy brings Joe up in her conversations with the kids throughout the day.
“We might talk about something funny that Papa did or said, like how he sings a song in a silly way,” she says. “Or we'll say a prayer for him on a rough day.”
Sometimes Judy lets the kids e-mail their dad when they have something they'd like to tell him outside of the lunch hour. Other times Joe will send one of the kids an e-mail when something comes up that he thinks will interest a particular child.
For parents with children attending conventional schools, such as Dick and Paula Magliocco — parents of Brian, 21, Scott, 17, and Lindsay, 14 — keeping dad and kids in touch and pointing toward dad as an authority figure can be more of a challenge. But it certainly is possible, with a bit of creativity.
“When the kids were little, they always seemed to look to me as the ‘big boss,’” Paula says. “I had to think of a way to counter that, and so I started responding to them that, I may be the big boss, but dad's the big, big boss.’ I let them know that, although they had to listen to me and obey, dad had the final say.”
Our Future Together
Before the kids reached the busy teen-age years, the Maglioccos would gather together every night after dinner to read the daily Gospel. Dick would lead a discussion of the readings afterward. Yearly they enthroned the Sacred Heart in their home, celebrating with a procession around the house led by Dick.
Dick leads all the family prayers, Paula explains. He also makes it a point to pray regularly and openly in the family's prayer corner dedicated to the Blessed Mother, which they call a home shrine.
“It's a powerful thing for kids to see their father at prayer,” Paula adds.
When the children were in grade school, Dick coached their soccer teams. About that time, he started the tradition of family ping-pong tournaments. These continue to this day; in fact, they've become a much-anticipated event when the family is reunited at Christmas break.
Once the kids reached high-school age, Dick began taking one of them out for breakfast every Saturday morning. This gives him some one-on-one time with his kids and a chance to catch up on what's going on in their lives.
“I'll keep doing that for as long as I can,” Dick says. “We really enjoy that time together. And, as the kids get older, our conversations become more and more interesting. It's great to be able to relate to your kid on an adult level.”
There is much mom can do to support dad in his role as father and head of the family — not only on Father's Day but every day.
We are all unique; the methods will vary from family to family. But the goal remains the same. We must strive to reflect the Holy Family, with the father at the head, the mother at the heart and the children at the center. As Pope John Paul II has said: “The future of the world and of the Church passes through the family.”
Marge Fenelon writes from Cudahy, Wisconsin.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Marge Fenelon ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Leave it Behind DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:Facts of Life
More than one-third of workers will check in with the office while on vacation this year, according to a new survey of 1,400 workers conducted by Career-Builder.com. That's too bad because, as Rosemary Haefner of CareerBuilder.com points out: ‘A little rest and relaxation can make a world of difference in an employee's performance and overall happiness with his or her job.’
Source: PR Newswire, May 27
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Prolife Victories DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:Pro-Lifer to U.N. Post
Danforth's diplomatic skills and an intimate knowledge of the workings of Washington are expected to be an asset to the post in light of the current U.S. situation in Iraq, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted. Pro-lifers hope he will influence the United Nations to vote in favor of pro-life initiatives.
During his tenure in the Senate, Danforth, an active Episcapalian minister, compiled a 100% pro-life voting record, the pro-life news site LifeNews.com reported.
The nomination, which was announced June 4, is expected to be approved by the Senate.
African Bishops Speak Up
NEWS24.COM (South Africa), May 31 — South Africa's bishops have spoken out strongly against a court judgment that would allow girls younger than 18 to have abortions without parental consent.
“We live in a South Africa, where God's injunction ‘Thou shalt not kill' is being totally and deliberately ignored with regard to abortion,” said Archbishop Buti Tlhagale, bishop of Johannesburg. “This judgment will lead to the weakening of individual consciences, especially of those of young people whose conscience formation is at a critical stage.”
The African news site reported that the May 31 Pretoria High Court ruling followed the dismissal earlier in the month of the Christian Lawyers Association's challenge to the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act.
Schindlers Can Visit Daughter
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 5 — A judge has ruled to allow the parents of Terri Schiavo, a 40-year-old brain-damaged Florida woman, the right to see her again.
Bob and Mary Schindler had been prevented by Schiavo's husband, Michael Schiavo, for two months from seeing their daughter at the Clearwater, Fla., hospice where she lives, the Associated Press reported. The judge permitted the visits June 4, citing the police investigation.
Vote on Parental Notification
The Legislature approved the ballot issue at the end of the legislative session in late May, the Bonita Daily News repor ted. It marks the third time lawmakers have tried to enact a privacy clause in Florida's constitution.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Adoption Estate DATE: 06/20/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 20-26, 2004 ----- BODY:Prolife Profile
It's a long way from Guyana to New York, but that's where Samantha found herself at 19 years old. Alone, pregnant, working in a bar — a stranger in a strange land — she worried about what kind of future her baby would face. Not to mention her own dim prospects for avoiding a life of poverty and instability.
Later she would thank God for leading her to the Nazareth Life Center in Garrison, N.Y., where she was nurtured and aided in putting her baby up for adoption. She spoke with the couple who ended up adopting the child — a son — and left with newfound hope.
“She blossomed like a flower here,” recalls Franciscan Sister of Peace Marita Paul Hammond, director of the center. “She told me, ‘I want to be somebody. I want to further my education. If my baby tries to find me someday, I don't want him to find me in a bar.’”
Founded in 1980 to provide women in crisis pregnancies with an alternative to abortion, Nazareth Life Center offers not only a warm and caring place for young women in need but also a connection with loving couples looking to adopt through the Catholic Home Bureau.
“There is no other place I know of where they put such a focus on adoption,” says Sister Marita Paul, who has been the center's director since it opened. “Our trilogy of purpose is, first, to redirect the girls’ life and take care of her while she's pregnant; second, to give the baby life; and third, to give couples a chance to become a family.”
Everyone wins, from the couples who go home with an expanded family to the girls who come from various backgrounds and circumstances. The latter have been as young as 12 and usually not older than 21. They might live here from their fifth month of pregnancy until delivery.
“We're here to nurture,” Sister Marita Paul says. “We want the girls to enjoy themselves so they make a positive direction in life when they leave.”
The center relies on donations and the young mothers’ care is free, including excellent medical care. The girls live in a family atmosphere and a confidential, spiritual, recreational environment. They can continue studies privately.
God's Hand at Work
“The symbol and the pattern for this is the Blessed Mother,” says Father Eugene Keane, the center's chaplain. “The care of these girls is like what Mary did when she hastened to Elizabeth, from the point of view of God. It's God's pattern in many ways.”
“Not only is the center pro-life, but it's also therapeutic progression for the mother,” he adds. “Every adoption is a noble act. It's the prime act in ‘therapy.’ They come out feeling they have done something noble and unselfish.”
Sister Marita Paul always clarifies misunderstandings on this point.
“Some people think girls surrendering for adoption don't care about their babies, but that is not true,” she says. “I want people to know they care even more because they're not making the selfish choice. They're doing what's best for the baby.”
Weekly, the Catholic Home Bureau of the Archdiocese of New York, which provides the preap-proved adoptive couples, visits to counsel and help the girls with adoption plans. The girls meet with and choose their prospective adoptive couples.
“We try to have couples without a baby so there's no competition,” Sister Marita Paul says. “That's our priority.”
She pauses, then adds with a hint of knowing in her voice: “Sometimes, after adoption, God chooses to send them a baby of their own.”
Sister Marita Paul says it's not unusual for the mothers to request a “rich or good-looking” couple for their baby. “We try to say, don't think a rich couple is what's best for your baby; that's not what it's all about,” she says. “A good-looking couple might not necessarily make good parents.”
Yet most girls, she says, are more inclined to ask surprisingly mature questions. “They ask, ‘How would you bring up my baby? What do you consider important in education? What about discipline?’” she says.
Carole Battaglia, who's worked with Nazareth Life Center for 13 years as the bureau's senior social worker with the maternity program, remarks how impressed she's been with the love and support Sister Marita Paul offers the girls.
“She provides a non-stressful environment, so nurturing and supportive,” she says. “She gives them a lot of security and caring.”
An adoptive parent herself, Battaglia says she's constantly discovering “the hand of God” at work here. She lists case after case distinguished by some remarkable turns of events. It might be something small — a couple having their baby born on their anniversary or some other date special to them — but the signs all point to one thing. “I believe the baby who goes to a couple is meant to be theirs,” she says.
Father Keane puts it this way: “The couples admire the birthmother and her sacrifice. They see God blessing them through this girl. It's a story of faith and God's providence.”
As for the young mothers: “You have to acknowledge the work of God,” Father Keane says, “in the life of these kids.”
Once a retirement home for the Christian Brothers, the facility housing the Nazareth Life Center is a stately, turn-of-the-century mansion on 24 acres in the Hudson River Valley. It's an ideal setting to house and help eight pregnant young women at a time.
Father Keane credits a friend known only as Griff as the “angel” who picked up the mortgage so the sisters wouldn't have to worry. The peaceful atmosphere has a positive effect on the girls’ state of mind, he adds.
The center can accommodate up to 10 at a time, but lately the nuns haven't had a full house. Sister Marita Paul attributes the drop-off not to a decrease in unwanted pregnancies but to American society's acceptance of promiscuity, single parenthood and the bad example set by pop stars, actors and other celebrities.
“I don't thing teen-age girls have good role models,” Battaglia says in agreement.
In 1991, as one of five workers on the program, Battaglia placed 13 babies herself. In 2003, only three. She laments the law allowing young girls to get abortions without notifying parents.
“Try to place a baby at 14 without the permission of the parents,” she adds. “And it's acceptable for teen-age girls to keep their babies.”
Still, the doors at Nazareth Life Center are open and ready, and the nuns don't worry about the empty rooms.
“When we don't have the girls,” Sister Marita Paul says, “we wait for God.”
Joseph Pronechen writes from
Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Meet the Catholic Voter DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — With a little more than four months before the nation goes to the polls, a national survey shows Catholic voters about evenly split between President George W. Bush and his Democratic challenger, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.
In this, the first in a series of articles on lay Catholics’ concerns leading up to November's election, the Register asked experts what we know and don't know about Catholic voters.
(We also asked a few voters. See “Talking to Catholic Voters,” page 7.)
Time magazine conducted the survey in early June showing Kerry favored by 46% of Catholic voters while 43% say they favor Bush.
But religious practice makes a difference, the poll shows. Bush holds a 23-point lead among Catholics who consider themselves “very religious” while Kerry leads by 46 percentage points among Catholic voters who say they are “not very religious.”
This year's presidential race is turning out to be one of the most religiously-tinged races in recent memory, with an incumbent who has fought to have more government contracts awarded to faith-based organizations and a Catholic challenger whose support for abortion has raised the question for priests and bishops of whether to deny him Communion.
Catholics of all stripes are grappling with issues ranging from abortion and stem-cell research to immigration and the economy. Many are weighing the issues, then trying to discern which candidate could best lead the country for the next four years.
What's Important?
Crisis magazine publisher Deal Hudson said life issues have to be the No. 1 priority for Catholic voters.
“There's nothing more fundamental in morality or in government than protecting the common good,” said Hudson, who has served as a Bush adviser since the president's first presidential campaign. “You can't even begin to protect the common good unless you protect the lives of citizens, and if you don't protect the lives of citizens, you're not doing what government is supposed to do.”
But Bart Stupak, a pro-life Democratic Congressman from Michigan, doesn't see a contradiction in supporting Kerry.
“I would like to think that Catholics look at the totality of the person and not just one issue,” he said in an interview June 17. “Catholics are concerned about social economic justice issues just as much as right-to-life issues. Why can't we pass an extension of the unemployment benefits when we can give away billions of dollars in tax breaks? People are hurting out there.”
‘Not a Narrow Cause’
American bishops offer voters guidance in their 2003 document “Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility.” The document “summarizes Catholic teaching on public life and on key moral issues.”
Earlier this month, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a copy of the document to the committees drafting election-year platforms for both major parties.
The 21-page document calls on American Catholics to “participate now and in the future in the debates and choices over the values, vision and leaders that will guide our nation.”
American bishops have issued similar documents prior to each presidential election since 1976.
The apologetics group Catholic Answers also is trying to help voters with its “Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics,” which lists five “nonnegotiable issues”: abortion, fetal stem-cell research, euthanasia, homosexual “marriage” and human cloning.
“These five issues are called nonnegotiable because they concern actions that are always morally wrong and must never be promoted by the law,” the booklet says. “It is a serious sin to endorse or promote any of these actions, and no candidate who really wants to advance the common good will support any of the five nonnegotiables.”
“Faithful Citizenship” discusses these and other issues bishops would like to see taken up in the presiden-tial campaigns.
“As bishops, we do not wish to instruct persons on how they should vote by endorsing or opposing candidates,” it says. “We hope that voters will examine the position of candidates on a full range of issues as well as on their personal integrity, philosophy and performance.”
The bishops describe “a consistent ethic of life” as the “moral framework” from which Catholic voters should deal with all issues in the political arena. It quotes extensively from the “Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life,” issued last year by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
“For Catholics, the defense of human life and dignity is not a narrow cause but a way of life and a framework for action,” the document says. “As Catholics, we need to share our values, raise our voices and use our votes to shape a society that protects human life, promotes family life, pursues social justice and practices solidarity. These efforts can strengthen our nation and renew our Church.”
Despite strongly worded documents such as “Faithful Citizenship” and “Voters Guide,” many Catholics support Kerry, who is staunchly pro-abortion.
His “voting record is abysmal from a Catholic point of view, even from the broadest social point of view,” Hudson said. The reason Catholics such as Kerry downplay social issues “is because they don't accept the Church's point of view on abortion,” Hudson said. “It's that simple.”
Stupak holds out hope that the Democratic Party will move toward more of a pro-life position.
“The life issue in the Democratic Party represented the underdog, the little person, and we've got to get back to that as a party,” he said. “Some of us right-to-lifers have already met with [Democratic National Convention chairman Terry McAuliffe] and said we want this back in the platform.”
But Hudson said Crisis magazine includes life issues in “a package of issues about what we call social renewal, which is about the addressing of moral breakdown in society.”
“These issues are all so interconnected,” he said. “That's why President Bush was so successful in 2000. He was able to show the connection of life issues to other issues like family and marriage.”
Patrick Novecosky writes from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
----- EXCERPT: PASSIONATE, TORN AND PARTISAN ----- EXTENDED BODY: Patrick Novecosky ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Two Bishops: Lay Help at Mass Must Have Faith DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:BEND, Ore. — Lay people who are not following Church teaching should not serve in functions such as lector or an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion.
So say two recent bishops in statements reaffirming diocesan policies.
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago in early June sent a letter to pastors saying Catholic lay people who disagree with the Church's teachings should not be allowed to assist in distributing Communion, the Chicago Sun-Times reported June 10.
And Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker, Ore., has requested that lay people who serve the Church in functions such as lector make an “affirmation of personal faith.”
Lay helpers in Oregon seem grateful for the new letters. Dr. Richard Thorne, a retired physician, heads the liturgy committee at St. Thomas Parish in Redmond, Ore. He also serves as an extraordinary minister of holy Communion for that parish.
“I welcomed it,” he said. “I think it's long overdue.”
Priests, too. Father Rogatian Urassa, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Kalamath Falls, Ore., is glad Bishop Vasa addressed the issue. “If they want to remain on the margin, they don't have to serve,” he said about lay people. “They cannot be representing a faith they are opposed to.”
Karl Keating, president of Catholic Answers, said the issues in Oregon and Chicago might have surfaced because of the controversy about communion and abortion votes.
“I suspect it's connected with the controversy over pro-abortion politicians receiving Communion,” Keating said. “I think it has been a concern of the bishops. But now it is being publicized — and it should be publicized.”
Though it could not be confirmed, Cardinal George might have been writing in response to pleas from a frustrated parishioner at St. Giles Parish in Oak Park, Ill.
“If a minister should manifest his/her disagreement with Church teaching, he/she should not continue in active ministry until such time that the minister is reconciled to the Church's teaching,” Cardinal George wrote.
The archdiocesan policy was reiterated, the cardinal said, in response to recent questions posed to the Church and in the media.
Parishioner Bill Rice said a state senator who is pro-abortion is allowed to be a lector.
The lector, Illinois state Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, he said, should not be allowed to continue serving in that capacity. After bringing up the issue last October but getting no satisfaction at the parish level, Rice said he appealed to the archdiocese and was eventually led to believe that Harmon would no longer be allowed to serve as a lector if he continued to publicly dissent from teachings.
St. Giles pastor, Father Thomas Dore, told the Register he met with Harmon after the letter came out and that Harmon agreed to stop being a lector. Harmon said he was disappointed and acknowledged that he is “pro-choice” — but not “pro-abortion.”
Archdiocesan spokesman James Dwyer declined to speak further on the Harmon issue but said Cardinal George's letter was simply reiterating common policy — that the Church expects lay helpers at the altar to adhere to its teachings. He said although the cardinal's letter focused on the administering of Communion, the same goes for all lay assistance, including lectors, cantors and youth ministry directors.
‘Minding the Flock’
Bishop Vasa's pastoral letter, “Giving Testimony to the Truth,” also clarifies an existing diocesan requirement that lay people in the sanctuary be of “outstanding moral character.” Then it adds an affirmation of personal faith to be made by all lay help during the next year.
Bishop Vasa said in spite of the fact that he has every confidence in lay participants, he also has a responsibility before God to be a shepherd and a teacher.
“While it is sufficient for me to ‘presume’ that Catholics who attend Mass and receive Communion adhere to these teachings (unless the contrary is clearly evident), such a presumption is not sufficient for those whom I commission to teach and act in some official capacity,” his letter states.
The process of obtaining certification as a lay helper would be conducted privately between the lay person and the pastor. Ministry candidates would state unequivocally: “I believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church teaches, believes and proclaims to be revealed by God.”
In a June 8 telephone interview, Bishop Vasa said he is pleased with the many supportive reactions he received after issuing the letter and the attached affirmation. And he noted that contradictions in service must be avoided. He said his proposal stems in part from a number of concerns expressed by some parishioners, not from any one particular situation.
He said lectors, cantors, youth ministry directors and all other ecclesial helpers must be held to a higher degree of accountability than parishioners sitting in the pews.
“The clearest example would be if somebody did not believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist,” Bishop Vasa said, noting that it would be contradictory for them to serve as extraordinary ministers of holy Communion. This is true, he said, “clearly in their public life but also in their private life if they are rejecting the teachings of the Church.”
Bishop Vasa acknowledged that some lay assistants and parishioners expressed concerns after he issued the proposal. But he said he has met with about a dozen of them, a few at a time, and that the meetings were cordial.
Armando Machado writes from Mount Vernon, Washington.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Armando Machado ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Helping Form `Unapologetic Apostles' DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:She serves as co-director of the aptly named Catherine of Siena Institute. Using teaching teams, Weddell works with Catholics to form lay apostles at the parish level.
She recently spoke with Register staff writer Tim Drake from Colorado Springs, Colo.
Where are you from originally?
I was raised as a fundamentalist in southern Mississippi. My father was involved in the space program as an engineer. My mother was a homemaker. I have a twin brother and two younger sisters.
What was your faith background?
I was baptized a Southern Baptist. My father went though a conversion when I was 10, so we joined an independent Bible church in Biloxi, Miss. We were very, very conservative. Eventually we got so conservative that no church was good enough.
What led you to become Catholic?
During my teens and my first year of college I went through my “village atheist” period. I didn't feel there was a place for me in Christianity and consciously left.
In college I had a conversion experience and came back to a broader evangelical Protestantism.
A couple of experiences opened the door for me. I had the intense desire to intercede for people in prayer. Catholic churches were the only ones that were open during the day, so I found myself walking into my first Catholic church — Blessed Sacrament in Seattle. I sensed there was a presence of God in that place. Protestant churches, by contrast, felt empty. After that I was hooked. For the next seven years I prayed in Catholic churches wherever I went. My friends would tell me if I didn't stop praying in Catholic churches I was going to become Catholic. I thought that was one of the most stupid things I had ever heard.
But my exposure to Catholic churches slowly melted my anti-Catholic prejudices.
A couple of years later I attended the Easter Vigil and was captivated by all of the Scripture. For the next few years I dragged my protesting Protestant friends to Easter Vigils.
The final thing that happened was an intense three-week psychological retreat. During that retreat I experienced God's goodness passing into the world through my created being and suddenly the idea that grace could enter the world through matter made sense. That opened the sacramental realm for me. Within two weeks I had signed up for RCIA. It took me another two years, but I was received into the Church just before Christmas in 1987.
How did you come to be at the Catherine of Siena Institute?
One day at Mass I had a very strong sense that my call was to call forth the vocations of other Christians. In response I entered a master's program for adult education while working on a Catholic understanding of work and vocation.
As a volunteer I created a gifts-discernment program for leaders of the Catholic charismatic renewal and began offering that program around the Seattle area. Dominican Father Michael Sweeney invited me to offer the program at Blessed Sacrament, and in 1997 the Western Dominican Province gave Father Michael and me a start-up grant to begin the institute.
Tell me about your work.
Our mission is to equip parishes to form lay apostles. That means making local parishes places where every baptized person, especially adults, are challenged to be disciples, are given formation and are empowered to discern God's call and answer it.
So far we've worked in 56 dioceses around the world. More than 20,000 people have gone through our programs. We're best known for the Called and Gifted process, which helps lay people identify their charisms and empowers them to exercise those gifts on behalf of the world. This is not self-help or pop psychology but a discernment process deeply rooted in the Church's tradition.
Why has formation for adults been such a weakness in the Church historically?
Traditionally Catholics have put all of their catechesis eggs into the children's basket. We thought putting kids through a Catholic education would solve everything.
What this has meant is that there has been very little tradition of adult formation for the laity. The U.S. bishops, in their document “Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us,” have stated that adults must be at the center of catechesis. But we don't have the mechanisms, leadership and structures in place yet to offer an apostolic formation to all the baptized.
That is what the institute is trying to address?
Yes. Vocation comes with baptism. When we were baptized, we were also anointed for a mission by Christ directly. Part of Christian adulthood is preparing for your mission. We're not giving the vast majority of lay Catholics the help they need to answer God's call. We are failing to support the process of subjective redemption — that process by which the grace that Christ has won for us enters the world through the assent and cooperation of human beings.
We have to start with what Pope Paul VI called “first proclamation.” The second-largest denomination in the United States is non-practicing Catholics! We must proclaim Christ in a way that challenges people who have not already done so to become intentional disciples. We cannot assume people are disciples even if they come to church every Sunday. The statistics are impressive. Disciples are more likely to show up for Mass. They fill every class in town. Disciples pray and read Scripture. They are eager to discern their vocations and their giving is 300% higher than average.
Give me an example of how this works.
One parish in a medium-sized city has been doing evangelization retreats for about 10 years and it has had more than 500 parishioners attend. One woman told me that after the retreat, she had a dream in which she saw the words “works of mercy.” She went through the Called and Gifted process and it also indicated she might have a charism of mercy. To test this, she got involved with her parish's St. Vincent de Paul Society and her whole life changed.
Her experience of working with the poor was so compelling that within a year, she had organized a team of homeless male firefighters. By the second year she had opened her area's first day center for the homeless. It all started with one small step of obedience.
One of the most brilliant questions I've ever been asked is: “How do I find the Mother Teresa in the back of my parish?”
The saints and apostles of the 21st century are in our parishes and communities right now, but until their destiny is revealed to them through a relationship with Christ, what God intends for them is often beyond their imagination. If we aren't calling people to discerning discipleship and fostering it at the parish level, it isn't going to happen for most of us.
I know you are hopeful for the future of the Church. Tell me why.
During the last two years I've begun to see a new group of leaders emerging into their own around the country. The John Paul II generation is just now entering institutional leadership. They are moving into parish and diocesan leadership and are seeking each other out and forming creative alliances. They include sharp young lay women and men, newly ordained priests and other clear, unapologetic apostles of Jesus Christ in areas such as religious education and family life.
What do you have planned next?
This summer we are offering our first “Making Disciples, Equipping Apostles” seminar in Colorado Springs and Oakland, Calif. We're offering five days of training for anyone who is really interested in how to make their parish a center of adult discipleship.
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sherry Weddell ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Church Crisis: Cardinal George Sizes up Progress DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:ROME — The clergy abuse crisis has weakened bishops’ authority and permanently changed the Church in America, according to Cardinal Francis George of Chicago.
And the Church's response to the crisis is an important time for penance and for learning, he said.
The cardinal was interviewed in Rome recently while making his once-every-five-year ad limina visit to Pope John Paul II.
Asked whether the Church in the United States is coming out of the clergy sex-abuse scandal, the cardinal said the crisis “will remain with us because the victims remain with us, and you have to care for victims continually.”
The Church also has to ensure that accused priests are treated fairly, he said, and the Vatican is still examining related legal aspects.
Meanwhile, he indicated, the Church community has taken on a new character as it establishes programs that train adults to do “what we're supposed to do as adults” — protect children.
The cardinal cautioned that the moral authority of the bishops has been weakened by the scandal, allowing “all kinds of separate agendas” to come out.
“We'll see which of them is passing and which of them is not,” he said.
Asked to comment on Cardinal George's assessment, Catholic writer Russell Shaw agreed the bishops’ moral authority has been weakened and that power struggles are the result.
“Loyal, orthodox Catholics used to pretty much accept what the bishops said at face value,” he said. “Many no longer do that. The attitude has become ‘show me.’”
“On the side of liberal, dissenting elements … they want to take power away from the clerical hierarchy in order to empower themselves — they want to be the ones calling the shots in the Church,” he said. “On the side of more middle-of-the road, orthodox elements, the agenda has more to do with power-sharing. They don't want to seize power from the clerical hierarchy; they merely wish to have a reasonable, responsible say in decision making.”
Forgiveness Important
Cardinal George said it is frustrating that even with the structures in place to respond well to victims and protect children, the culture seems unwilling to forgive the scandal.
“We're ashamed by it and rightly so. We wonder how it can happen, what went wrong — we have to learn from it,” he said. “But the point of the Church is that sin can be forgiven, whereas the culture keeps going around and around and around the same thing and seems unable to come to any kind of forgiveness, and without forgiveness there's no freedom. So the Church has to both put things into shape and yet also continue to preach forgiveness, and that's a formula that we haven't quite found yet.”
“It's a terrible crime, and there is very often more than one crime,” Cardinal George said. “Just one case is terrible. … The boy is ruined for life.”
At the same time, “Out of the thousands and thousands of priests who have served in my archdiocese in 50 years, 47 have committed this crime, that we know of,” he said.
Sue Archibald, a spokeswoman for the victim-survivors group LinkUp, debated Cardinal George on the topic of forgiveness last year in Chicago.
“The forgiveness issue with survivors is a very difficult issue. Forgiveness has the word ‘give’ in it, and many survivors feel as though they shouldn't have to give anything to the Church because of the harm that was inflicted upon them,” she said. “Many people feel forgiveness becomes another tool the Church uses for repressing or for minimizing the abuse they've suffered.”
Many individuals have forgiven perpetrators and the Church, and they have found that to be a healing step, she said. At the same time, however, forgiveness cannot mean abandoning issues of accountability and responsibility, she said.
None of the accused priests in the Chicago archdiocese are currently in ministry — 22 resigned, 20 were removed from ministry and 13 are deceased.
The archdiocese spent $26.9 million since 1950 on settlements and victims’ assistance, nearly $6 million dollars on legal fees and nearly $6 million on treatment and monitoring of accused priests.
Cardinal George has been a model bishop in his care for priests who have been removed, said Joe Maher, founder of Opus Bono Sacerdotii, a Detroit-based organization founded in April 2002 to assist accused priests. Theological advisers for the group include Cardinal Avery Dulles and Father Richard John Neuhaus.
“He's seen his men, he's provided their living expenses, they have a good support group with each other,” Maher said of Cardinal George. He said the majority of removed priests nationwide “have never talked to their bishops, and their bishops refuse to talk to them.”
Perspective Needed
Nationally, about 80% of the clergy-abuse cases involved crimes against young adolescent boys.
Cardinal George said “we have to look at homosexuality as a cause, but I think we have to keep it in proportion.” It is important to remember that there are priests who are innocent of any crime or sinful lifestyle but who are homosexual.
“Does that impede their ministry? Perhaps in some cases it does, in some cases it doesn't seem to, but how do you know?” he said. “So it's difficult to address adequately, but it does have to be addressed. But it has to be addressed without alarmist sentiments and without a priori kinds of conclusions.”
Cardinal George said he knows of no seminary in the United States today that would accept a candidate who has been active in the homosexual lifestyle. But even beyond actions, the understanding of sexual orientation is also being addressed in seminary selection, he said.
“In general if someone is oriented in this way, and it's a definitive orientation, he's discouraged from going on because there's too much tension in his life. There's something unresolved in one's personality,” Cardinal George said. “There are particular manifestations of difficulties at times in every personality, but there's a [consolidation] of them in the homosexual personality, I'm told. What you don't want to do is scapegoat the homosexual community as such for our sins. But you have to address it because it's a phenomenon, and there are priests who have sinned and have sinned badly.”
Cardinal George said if a man cannot see himself as a husband and father, he cannot be a priest, because a priest is married to the Church and brings forth through his ministry new children to his bride.
He acknowledged that some people might think he should be more “absolute” on the question of homosexuals in the priesthood. But, he said, “the problem is the discovery of sexual orientation takes place at different times in people's lives.
“There's a whole range of phenomena when you're talking about orientation — absolutely, partially. Actions are clearer, and certainly if someone has acted out in that way, particularly if he's lived a gay lifestyle, he's not a candidate for priesthood.”
Oblate of St. Francis de Sales Father John Harvey, founding director of Courage, a program for homosexual persons seeking to lead chaste lives, said he would agree with the cardinal's statement but would nuance it further.
Father Harvey said he has known many homosexual priests who are leading chaste lives and doing well in their ministry.
“A priest can transcend his inclinations and act the role of a father and be a father, and he can do that by God's grace,” he said. “I have seen some homosexual priests do this.”
At the same time, Father Harvey said, if Rome were to decide that men with homosexual inclinations should not be accepted into the seminary, he would support that decision.
Ellen Rossini writes from Richardson, Texas.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Rossini ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Denver and the Growing Seminaries DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:DENVER — There has long been talk of a vocations crisis in the United States. But the Archdiocese of Denver has experienced a different sort of problem.
It's had to build a $4.7 million addition to two seminaries here to solve that problem — a steady growth in the number of students for the priesthood in this Rocky Mountain capital.
Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput on May 7 blessed the new addition, which is attached to Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary, one of the institutions. Redemptoris Mater trains priests for the Neocatechumenal Way, a relatively new movement in the Church, while the St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, the archdiocesan seminary, trains men for Denver and other dioceses.
“Zeal and the courage to announce the Gospel and communion with Rome — these are the two main ingredients in Denver,” said Father Florian Martin-Calama, rector of Redemptoris Mater, which taught 39 seminarians during the 2003-2004 school year.
Students from both institutions and archdiocesan personnel will use the first-floor classrooms of the addition. The second floor houses administrative offices, residential rooms and a chapel.
For the past few years, as enrollments have grown, some classes have met in the student dining hall and even in hallways.
“Now, with this addition, we will be able to house all of our classes in an appropriate classroom,” said Father Michael Glenn, rector of St. John Vianney Seminary, which had 54 seminarians enrolled during 2003-2004.
The need for physical expansion to accommodate growing numbers of seminarians isn't a story Americans hear much. Conventional wisdom holds that young men are turned off by the prospect of priestly celibacy.
Denver, however, isn't alone in seeing vocation growth. The Archdiocese of Omaha, Neb., and the dioceses of Lincoln, Neb.; Peoria, Ill.; and Arlington, Va., among others, have reported substantial vocations growth in recent years.
Some observers attribute that growth directly to an unapologetic embrace of Church doctrine and tradition.
Archbishop Elden Curtiss of Omaha has argued that “when dioceses and religious communities are unambiguous about ordained priesthood and vowed religious life as the Church defines these calls; when there is strong support for vocations and a minimum of dissent about the male celibate priesthood and religious life loyal to the magisterium; when bishop, priests, religious and lay people are united in vocation ministry — then there are documented increases in the numbers of candidates who respond to the call.”
‘All Things Relative’
The Denver rectors espouse similar views, saying their success results from adherence to structure and truth.
“Today's young men come from a world in which all things are relative,” Father Glenn said. “What they want is a good education based in truth and clarity. They don't want to give their lives for something that's abstract, relative or confused.”
Father Martin-Calama says young seminarians are quick to dismiss theological views that follow “fashions of the time.” They're so tired of progressive Catholicism and modernity, he said, that some seem to long for the Church of pre-Vatican II.
“There is a danger of identifying the council with today's crisis and confusion,” Father Martin-Calama said. “The crisis was already there.”
Both Denver seminaries, he emphasizes, adhere strictly to Vatican II.
“Without the council we would have not rediscovered the word of God, we would have not rediscovered the Church as sacrament of salvation for the world, we would have not rediscovered the dazzling light of the Eucharist as the paschal mystery celebrating the death and resurrection of Our Lord,” Father Martin-Calama said. “We must go back not to Trent but to Jerusalem.”
Academically, Denver's two seminaries are identical. Each, however, has its own formation process. Students are separated by institution for morning and evening prayers, which follow separate formats. Redemptoris Mater seminarians are sponsored by communities of the Neocatechumenal Way; St. John Vianney seminarians are sponsored by individual bishops.
St. John Vianney students get part of their formation while living in a parish house, assisting parish communities in the Denver Archdiocese; Redemptoris Mater seminarians place an emphasis on rediscovering the meaning of their baptism.
“The seminarians of the Redemptoris Mater seminary are not only preparing for the priesthood but they are also rediscovering, through a post-baptismal catechumenate, their baptism,” Father Martin-Calama said. “This is today very important because the crisis of the family and the crisis of Catholic schools makes it so that youth, even those who feel a call to give their life to announce the Gospel, lack many times the foundations of Christian life, like loving God above everything, detachment from money, obedience, prayer.”
In preparation for the priest-hood, Redemptoris Mater seminarians spend at least two years in “itinerant ministry,” in which they are sent to difficult foreign environments without security and in a state of precariousness that Father Martin-Calama describes as “without money or knapsack.”
Redemptoris Mater is one of 50 seminaries throughout the world established by members of the Neocatechumenal Way, a Catholic formation program that originated in Spain. In Denver, Redemptoris Mater was established as an experiment in 1996 by Cardinal Francis Stafford, Denver archbishop at the time and now president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, and was established permanently by Archbishop Chaput in 1999.
“The two seminaries are, in the words of Cardinal [Angel] Suquia from Madrid, like two lungs, one breathing ad intra and the other ad extra — one turned primarily toward the needs of the archdiocese, the other turned mainly toward the needs of the whole world,” Father Martin-Calama says.
In dedicating the new facility, Archbishop Chaput said the Neocatechumenal Way had proved itself a wonderful blessing for the Church in Denver and throughout the world.
“This is a moment to take pride in our faith,” Archbishop Chaput said, “to be joyful and very grateful.”
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Sam's Club Sells Bulk Copies of
ZAP2IT.COM, June 13 — Catering to religious groups, Sam's Club in early June began selling bulk copies of The Passion of the Christ, set to be released on DVD and videocassette Aug. 31.
Sam's, the wholesale club division of Wal-Mart Stores, is selling 50 DVDs in a “church pack” for $898 — $17.96 apiece — and 50 videocassettes for $795, or $15.90 apiece, Zap2It.com reported.
Bulk packaging for small businesses fits Sam's strategy, a company spokeswoman said, and that includes churches.
Though religious groups and stores normally purchase from specialized companies, the entertainment website noted, Zondervan, which holds the film's distribution rights for the Christian market, said it supported any efforts to promote the movie.
Churches-Turned-Condos Is Big Market in Boston
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 13 — “Huge, huge, huge, huge, huge” is the way one Boston real estate agent described the market for churches renovated into condos.
As the Archdiocese of Boston moves forward in putting 60 Church properties up for sale, many predict they will be turned into condominiums.
“They'll sell in a heartbeat, overnight, in 10 minutes,” the real estate agent said.
However, Father Christopher Coyne, spokesman for the archdiocese, said the archdiocese will use an open bidding process for the properties and will try to find buyers who plan to convert the churches for uses consistent with the Church's social mission.
St. Peter and Paul's Church in South Boston has already closed and turned into condos. The condos are priced at between $300,000 for the smallest one-bedroom unit to $1.2 million for a 2,400-square-foot penthouse with cathedral ceilings and the bell tower of the 1840s church, the Associated Press reported.
Former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn's parents were parishioners of St. Peter and Paul. He said many residents had hoped the church would be used for low-income housing rather than pricey condos. Eight of the 44 units were set aside as affordable.
“It takes a long time for people to not think of this as a sacred religious site,” Flynn said. “I still find myself blessing myself as I go by.”
Bush Asked Vatican for Help Promoting Family Issues
CNN, June 14 — When he visited the Vatican on June 4, President Bush asked the Holy See to call on U.S. bishops to become more involved in promoting pro-life and pro-family issues, according to a Vatican official who spoke to CNN on June 13.
Bush stated his case to Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state. The president “complained that the U.S. bishops were not being vocal enough in supporting [Bush] on social issues like gay marriage and abortion,” a Vatican official privy to the discussion told CNN.
The official said Cardinal Sodano did not respond to Bush's request. “It was the Vatican's interpretation that [Bush] wanted [the bishops] to get involved in time for the campaign,” the official said.
When pressed for more details on the meeting, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, “The positions of the president and the Vatican are well-known on those issues. … I would just leave it at that.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Prayerful Week DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:DENVER — It was supposed to be a prayerful spring retreat, which the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops enjoys every five years, away from the scrutiny of the media.
Instead, the bishops’ June 14-19 meeting at the Inverness Hotel in Englewood, Colo., a suburb of Denver, became the center of major political policy questions with unwanted press attention and a hot agenda with big-ticket election-year ramifications.
The bishops approved a statement June 18 regarding public officials who publicly endorse positions contrary to Church teaching on abortion. The statement said it is up to individual bishops to decide whether to deny Communion to such persons.
A U.S. bishops’ task force has been studying the question, and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., recently met with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to discuss options, said Msgr. Francis Maniscalco, spokesman for the conference.
“It's a serious pastoral concern when the Eucharist is not treated with respect,” Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix said in an interview. “St. Paul implores that we must examine our consciences before approaching the altar. I think all of us came here with great love for the Eucharist and have come in a spirit of prayer to determine what should be done.”
St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, among a handful of bishops who have publicly admonished presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and other pro-abortion Catholic politicians for partaking in Communion, told the Register before the conference voted that it appears a majority of his fellow American bishops agree with his position — one that includes refusing Communion.
Before Archbishop Burke left for the Denver retreat, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that “experts” predicted his colleagues would rebuke him at the retreat.
“That didn't happen,” Archbishop Burke said. “There's a lot more support for my position than anyone might expect.”
Almost no official information about the Denver meeting was forthcoming from conference officials, and most bishops declined to comment when contacted at their hotel rooms. Journalists who showed up at the conference were escorted from the building by sheriff's deputies and hotel security, who told reporters they would be arrested if they returned.
Marriage Amendment
Bishops received a seven-page memorandum from the Alliance for Marriage — a multidenomi-national organization — asking them to make discussion of the proposed federal marriage amendment a priority at the Colorado meeting and to lead a grass-roots campaign in favor of it.
Supporters fear they'll lose ground as other states follow the lead of Massachusetts, which legalized homosexual “marriage” in May, and that the amendment will stand little chance of passing if President Bush loses in November.
Bush reportedly asked Vatican officials June 4 during a visit to Rome to call on U.S. bishops to be more aggressive in supporting pro-family platforms, especially the federal marriage amendment.
The Denver retreat was the last meeting of the full conference of bishops before the upcoming elections.
“We're running out of time, and we need our American bishops to make support of the marriage amendment their top priority,” said former baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, a Catholic and member of the Alliance for Marriage's board of directors, in an interview with the Register.
“All of these other issues, while extremely important, aren't going to matter much if the bishops don't do whatever they can, right now, to save the traditional family,” Kuhn said.
The amendment would define marriage strictly as the union of one man and one woman and leave it up to each state to decide whether to recognize, for example, civil unions between same-sex couples.
Last September the bishops issued a statement titled “Promote, Preserve, Protect Marriage,” in which they explained it's their duty to “advocate for legislative and public-policy initiatives that define and support marriage as a unique, essential relationship and institution.” The statement offered the bishops’ “general support for a federal marriage amendment … as we continue to work to protect marriage in state legislatures, the courts, the Congress and other appropriate forums.”
However, some amendment advocates have called into question whether professional staffers at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops headquarters in Washington, D.C., are fully behind the effort because it has more Republican than Democratic support.
In an e-mail letter to subscribers and supporters, Crisis magazine publisher Deal Hudson charged Msgr. William Fay, the bishops’ conference's general secretary, and conference lobbyist Frank Monahan with downplaying the bishops’ support of the amendment. He said Msgr. Fay recently told Washington legislators at a meeting that the conference didn't want the amendment to become a political issue or to impinge on anyone's rights.
“The [bishops’ conference's] staff doesn't want to do anything that might help President Bush's re-election,” Hudson told the Rocky Mountain News. “There are such old and strong ties between the [conference] and the Democratic Party that they get very nervous over supporting any issue that helps President Bush or hurts the Democratic Party.”
Princeton law professor Robert George, who co-authored the memorandum urging more support from bishops for the marriage amendment, said evangelical Protestant churches have done far more to promote the amendment than the Catholic Church has.
Msgr. Fay and Monahan, who were in Denver for the retreat, did not return calls from the Register.
But Msgr. Fay responded to Hudson in May, saying the Crisis publisher had failed to report things he actually said at the Washington meeting. He said he told legislators what they were doing was “extremely important, because the courts had hijacked the question of marriage.” He said he advised lawmakers to avoid joining other things to the amendment and that the movement to protect marriage “should address the issue of marriage as between a man and a woman, period.”
Hudson published the letter but stood by his account, as reported by three people in attendance.
Sex Abuse
Bishops at the June meeting were also dealing with issues pertaining to the sex-abuse scandal. Among their first orders of business was approval of an on-site audit of all dioceses to be completed by Dec. 31.
The audit will form the basis for the second annual report on the implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People by each diocese. Bishops approved the on-site audits by a 207-14 vote, with one abstention.
Kathleen McChesney, executive director of the bishops’ Office of Child and Youth Protection, told Catholic News Service on June 16 that the vote leaves enough time to do the 2004 audits.
“Last year's audits began at the end of June,” McChesney said. “This leaves us approximately the same amount of time.”
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: But Bishops Tackle Some Business Issues ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: New Vatican Study Sets the Record Straight DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — The Inquisition was not nearly as bad as is commonly thought.
That's according to the findings of a six-year historical study released by the Vatican on June 15 that examined the trials of Jews, Muslims, Cathars, witches, scientists and other non-Catholics in Europe between the 13th and 19th centuries.
According to Agostino Borromeo, a professor who was responsible for creating the volume titled simply “The Inquisition,” “the recourse to torture and the death sentence weren't so frequent as it long has been believed.”
Previous estimates of the number killed by the Spanish Inquisition have ranged from 30,000 to 300,000. Other scholars are convinced millions died.
But notwithstanding the uncertainty of the final statistics of the phenomenon that spanned several centuries, researchers in this study discovered that among the 125,000 cases tried in the Spanish Inquisition, actually less than 1% ended with the death penalty.
“The Inquisition” includes essays by 31 scholars from Europe and North America who sought to examine the period objectively in a forum that was “exempt from controversy or any apologetic nature,” said Bor-romeo from Rome's La Sapienza University.
“The acts of the symposium are a point of reference,” he added.
The historians treated the Inquisition as a single phenomenon, although tribunals existed in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and Germany.
Know the Truth
In a written message to those charged with producing the 783-page document, Pope John Paul II praised the work and emphasized the reason for the study, stressing the importance of knowing “exactly what are the facts and to recognize the shortcomings with respect to the evangelical needs.”
“In public opinion,” the Pope continued, “the image of the Inquisition represents in some way the symbol of this counter-witness and scandal. In what measure is this image faithful to reality? Before asking for forgiveness, it is necessary to know exactly what are the facts and to recognize the shortcomings with respect to the evangelical needs in appropriate cases. This is why the committee referred to historians whose scientific competence is universally recognized.”
The Holy Father recalled that on March 12, 2000, a special service was held for a day of forgiveness and said the study of the Inquisition should be understood in that context of when the Church prayed and asked for pardon for the “errors committed in the service of truth, when unethical methods were used.”
Many Catholic scholars have welcomed the findings and found them unsurprising.
“In most cases, the Inquisition was not as extreme as novels and movies like to portray,” said Jesuit Father Brian Daley, a historical theologian at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. “It's much more ambiguous and complicated than that.”
To begin with, a distinction needs to be made between the various Inquisitions. The Spanish court was not ecclesiastical in that it was set up by King Phillip II of Spain as a means of controlling his people and maintaining stability.
“There was a fear of instability in Spain,” Father Daley said. “There was also a great interest in conformity in the country.”
Retired Church history professor Michael Walsh has always understood that much of Inquisition history has been influenced by the “black propaganda” perpetrated by Protestants in Britain following the Reformation.
Certainly, few scholars deny the period's exaggerations were linked to Britain's antagonisms with Spain following the defeat of King Phillip's attempt to invade Britain with the Spanish Armada in 1588.
There is likewise little historical dispute that the Church, in fact, never officially sent anyone to the gallows during the Inquisition.
“Like Joan of Arc,” Walsh said, “those found guilty of heresy were not executed by the Church but handed over to the secular authorities” and then sentenced to death by the state.
But Walsh concedes there are “always renegades” in the Church and admits there were some Church authorities who were overzealous but who were also quickly removed from office when the Vatican heard of the abuses.
For example, while it is true that Pope Sixtus IV co-operated with the Inquisition's arch-perpetrators, King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile, he objected to what he perceived to be abuses committed in the name of the Spanish Inquisition.
“My impression has always been that torture was not, on the whole, something the Church would approve of,” Walsh said. “It has a long tradition of being opposed to violence.”
Different Times
In his address to the authors of the document, John Paul cautioned that in discussions of the Inquisition, the modern world should be careful to distinguish “between the acts of certain members of the faith and the dominant mentality of the era.”
Walsh believes this to be central in reconciling the Church of history to the world of today.
“The Inquisition in Spain was the creation of having reduced the country to one country and one faith,” he explained; a pluralist society such as we have today “was unheard of.”
According to Lawrence Cunningham, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, torture during those times “was a common judicial procedure to get to the truth.”
Other forms of inquisition were also carried out by other rulers and denominations. For example, early Puritan colonies in the United States set up their own inquisitions, and nearly every denomination persecuted the Anabaptists for rejecting infant baptism.
There was also the English court of Star Chamber during the reign of King Henry VII that, although it imparted few sentences as harsh as the death penalty, ordered the practice of torture.
“How do we know the Inquisition was unjust?” Walsh asked. “Obviously it is indefensible to us and a great pity, but we cannot judge it by our own standards, and there is a great danger in doing so.”
So, in the light of history, do the Pope and the Church really need to apologize for the past? Some scholars and members of the Roman Curia think not and consider it unwise to do so. But others disagree.
“I think it shows a mark of humility and the people are reassured by it,” Father Daley said. “To the degree that the facts are true, it is right to confess and that is appropriate. But the truth must likewise be presented.”
Edward Pentin writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Vatican Library Employs Computer-Chip Technology
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 11 — Officials in the Vatican Library have started implanting computer chips into the 1.6 million volumes in its collection. The chips communicate via wave radio with handheld monitors so librarians can tell if a book is missing.
“That is no small thing, because a book that's out of place is as if the book is lost,” said Ambrogio Piazzoni, the library's deputy prefect.
While the technology has been around for a while, the Associated Press reported, the Vatican believes its “Pergamon” system — named for the ancient city in modern Turkey that housed one of the Old World's greatest libraries — is the first time it is being used on such a large scale.
Pope Would Mediate if Needed in Azerbaijan
The Vatican ambassador to Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, said the Pope is ready to mediate if either side asks him to do so, Baku Today newspaper reported.
The archbishop also on June 10 told Interfax News Agency that Catholics in Azerbaijan and the Baku mayor's office have begun work on a project for restoring a Catholic church in Baku.
He said the new building will be similar to the Baku Catholic church that was destroyed by Soviet authorities in the 1930s. The money to restore the church, he said, was taken from the Holy Father's personal funds.
Presbyterian Leader: Pope Is Not the ‘Anti-Christ’
According to the new Presbyterian moderator, the Rev. Dr. Ken Newell, Presbyterians are not required by church doctrine to regard the Pope as an anti-Christ, the Belfast Telegraph reported.
Newell confirmed that in 1988 the General Assembly had fully accepted that one of the claims of the Westminster Confession of Faith that the Pope is “the anti-Christ” was “not evidently manifest in Scripture,” the newspaper said.
Newell was replying to Free Presbyterian Church critics of his personal invitation to Archbishop Sean Brady of Armagh to the Presbyterian General Assembly in early June.
Vatican's U.N. Nuncio Says Mass for Religious Order
The order has had a chapter in Nazareth since 1913, the Pennsylvania Express-Times newspaper noted. The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart was founded in 1854 in France. The order has more than 2,000 missionaries worldwide.
As part of the order's anniversary project, the paper noted, it is participating in an AIDS outreach program in Africa.
Archbishop Migliore has been permanent observer to the United Nations for the Vatican for two years.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Cardinal Tauran: `Politics Is the Art of the Possible' DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:DOHA, Qatar — Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican's chief archivist and librarian, is a veteran hand when it comes to assessing international issues from the perspective of the Catholic Church — from 1990-2003, he served as the Vatican's foreign minister.
Cardinal Tauran spoke with Register correspondent Joan Lewis in May during the Qatar Conference on Muslim-Christian Dialogue about the recent expansion of the European Union, Europe's Christian heritage and the continuing conflicts in the Holy Land and Iraq.
Your Eminence, what are your thoughts on the May 1 enlargement of the European Union, when 10 new nations joined the EU, bringing the total to 25 members?
I would not speak so much of an enlargement as of a return, a return of countries that were excluded for so many years from their natural milieu. It was an exchange of gifts because, by returning to Europe, these new members are bringing with them their great cultural and historical wealth. These are factors that enrich, not disturb.
It is surely a very important page in European history.
Several of these countries lived for more than 50 years under a communist regime, a cumbersome legacy that some say is causing Europe to now move forward at different speeds. Do you share that opinion?
Certainly. It will be a far more complex exercise when you have 25 voices making decisions; thus, formulas will have to be found that allow every member country to feel it is a partner with full rights. Until this happens, however, the formulas must be realistic because we are talking about countries with very different experiences.
Politics is the art of the possible; therefore, I am confident this will happen.
For more than a year now, as often as he could do so, Pope John Paul II has pointed to the importance of mentioning Europe's Christian roots in the new European Constitution. There are many in Europe who do not want this — or any mention of religion — included. Your thoughts?
The writers of the European Constitution wished to preface it with a preamble that gave a vision of Europe's past history. In rereading [this history] no one could deny that Christianity was the only religion that contributed to the formation of European institutions. Let's not forget that the first school was born at the court of Charlemagne through the efforts of a monk, Alcuin; this is an undisputed fact. The first universities were founded by the Church.
And I always think of the fact that the first exercise in direct democracy was the election of abbots in Benedictine monasteries. Paul VI, in fact, in a phrase that has been quoted by Pope John Paul II, used to say that Europe was born from a cross, a book and a plow, a reference to Benedictine spirituality. We must also think of pilgrimages, of the Latin language as cultural factors that have modeled Europe's physiognomy. History should be read, or read again where necessary.
Having served in the Middle East in the diplomatic corps of the Holy See — especially your years in Lebanon — you know better than most the realities of that area, in particular the problems of the Christians who live there.
No one can deny that there has been a hemorrhage of Christians from this part of the world. Partly because there are situations there that have lasted for many years and no one can ask that people be or become heroes. There are hot spots in the Holy Land and in Lebanon concerning Christians.
What we want to avoid is that the holy places turn into museums; rather, they must be living realities with Christian communities that actively function, and we want Lebanon to continue to be the laboratory of dialogue that it has been up to now, where Christians are equal partners with the faithful of other religions.
Christians in the Middle East continue to receive all the necessary attention on the part of the Holy See. We are interested in seeing Christians witness to their faith in the midst of other believers.
What role can the United Nations play in solving the crises in Iraq and in the Holy Land?
I believe that never before in history have actors on the international scene possessed such refined juridical instruments, such as U.N. resolutions, international conventions and the like. What is missing is the political will to apply these instruments.
The United Nations does not exist, but what does exist is the will of the 191 members that comprise it. Therefore, a reform of the United Nations is necessary, but we must be careful not to destroy it. Decisions must be made according to law and to justice. I would be careful of demonizing the United Nations and of giving it powers it does not have.
As far as the Holy Land is concerned, I believe the Israeli-Palestinian crisis is the mother of all crises. When this is settled, all problems will be resolved.
And Iraq?
I think the United Nations is the only institution capable of accompanying the transition of Iraq toward popular sovereignty. Two or three countries by themselves cannot impose order on the world.
All we need to do is go back and read the U.N. Charter, a document that no one seems to read or remember. Within the charter we have all the elements necessary for a solution.
Joan Lewis works for Vatican Information Service.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joan Lewis ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: God Is With Us and Gives Us Peace DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Register Summary
Pope John Paul II met with more than 10,000 pilgrims during his general audience June 16 in St. Peter's Square. The Holy Father arrived by car and made a large circuit around St. Peter's Square to welcome the pilgrims.
His teaching focused on Psalm 46, which is one of six psalms known as the Songs of Zion. The psalm celebrates the special status of Jerusalem as “the holy dwelling of the Most High,” and the psalmist expresses his unshakeable confidence in God, who is the source of complete security.
“The first part of the hymn focuses on the symbol of water,” the Pope pointed out, both as a destructive force and a source of refreshment. “The psalmist, referring both to the waters of Jerusalem and to the waters of Shiloah, perceives in them a sign of the life that flourishes in the holy city, of its spiritual fruitfulness and of its regenerating power.”
The second part sketches the portrait of a world the Lord has transformed. “From his throne in Zion, the Lord himself intervenes against war in an extremely forceful way and establishes the peace for which all people yearn,” the Holy Father said.
John Paul noted that our Christian tradition applies this psalm to Christ, who is our peace, and St. Ambrose saw it as a prophecy of Christ's resurrection.
We have just heard the first of the six Songs of Zion that are contained in the Book of Psalms (see Psalms 46, 48, 76, 84, 87, 122). Psalm 46, like the other compositions of the same genre, celebrates the holy city of Jerusalem, “the city of God, the holy dwelling of the Most High” (see verse 5). Above all, however, it expresses an unshakeable confidence in God, “who is our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in distress” (see verse 2 as well as verses 8 and 12). The psalm evokes some rather tremendous upheavals in order to affirm in a more powerful way God's victorious intervention, which gives us complete security. Because of God's presence, Jerusalem “shall not be shaken; God will help it at the break of day” (see verse 6).
This reminds us of the prophecy the prophet Zephaniah addressed to Jerusalem when he said: “Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! Sing joyfully, O Israel! Be glad and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! … The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior; he will rejoice over you with gladness and renew you in his love; he will sing joyfully because of you, as one sings at festivals” (Zephaniah 3:14, 17-18).
Psalm 46 is divided into two main parts by a sort of antiphon that resounds in verses 8 and 12: “The Lord of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob.” The title of “Lord of hosts” is typical of Jewish worship in the Temple of Zion, and despite its military overtones is connected with the Ark of the Covenant and refers to God's lordship over the entire universe and over history.
For this reason, this title is a source of confidence because the entire world and everything that happens in it are under the Lord's supreme rule. Therefore, the Lord is “with us,” as the antiphonal verse says, implicitly referring to Emmanuel, “God is with us” (see Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23).
The River of Life
The first part of the hymn focuses on the symbol of water, giving it a double meaning resulting in a contrast. On one hand, for example, the raging waters break forth, which, in biblical language, is a symbol of devastation, chaos and evil. They shake the very structures of life and of the universe, which is symbolized by the mountains that totter as something akin to a destructive flood pours forth (see verse 3-4). On the other hand, however, we behold the refreshing waters of Zion, a city set upon arid mountains, which are “streams of the river” that give gladness. The psalmist, referring both to the waters of Jerusalem and to the waters of Shiloah (see Isaiah 8:6-7), perceives in them a sign of the life that flourishes in the holy city, of its spiritual fruitfulness and of its regenerating power.
Thus, despite the upheavals of nations and kingdoms throughout history (see Psalm 46:7), the faithful will encounter a peace and tranquility in Zion that comes from communion with God.
A World Transformed
In a sense, the second part of the psalm (see verses 9-11) sketches a portrait of a world that has been transformed. From his throne in Zion, the Lord himself intervenes against war in an extremely forceful way and establishes the peace for which all people yearn. When we read verse 10 of this hymn, “Who stops wars to the ends of the earth, breaks the bow, splinters the spear and burns the shield with fire,” we are immediately reminded of Isaiah.
The Peace of Christ
This prophet also sang about the end of the arms race and the transformation of weapons of death into resources to aid the development of nations: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again” (Isaiah 2:4).
Our Christian tradition has used this psalm to sing praise to Christ, “our peace” (see Ephesians 2:14), who has delivered us from evil through his death and resurrection. The commentary St. Ambrose developed in relationship to verse 6 of Psalm 46 is thought-provoking because it describes the “help” the Lord offers the city “at the first hour of the morning.” This famous Father of the Church perceives it as a prophetic allusion to the Resurrection.
In fact, he explains, “the morning Resurrection procures the sustenance of heavenly help for us, which has driven back the darkness of night and brought us the day, as Scripture says: ‘Awaken, arise from the dead! The light of Christ will shine for you!’ Observe its mystical meaning! Christ's passion took place in the evening … his resurrection at dawn … In the evening, the world dies as the light also dies, as this world was living completely in darkness and would have been immersed in the horror of even greater darkness if Christ, the eternal light, had not come down from heaven to bring forth an age of innocence for all mankind. Therefore, Jesus the Lord suffered, and with his blood he has redeemed us from our sins, he has enlightened our consciences with a clearer light and an age of spiritual grace shines forth” (Commento a dodici Salmi: Saemo, VIII, Milan-Rome, 1980, p. 213).
(Register translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: 'The Problem Is Occupation' DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:RABOUEH, Lebanon — His Beatitude Gregory III Laham has been patriarch of the Greek Mel-kite Catholic Church since 2000. Prior to that, he served as patriarchal general vicar of Jerusalem for 26 years.
Born in Syria, Patriarch Laham was raised in Lebanon. Register correspondent Doreen Abi Raad spoke to him from his office in Raboueh, Lebanon, about the conflict in Israel.
You have witnessed the problem of the conflict in Israel up close. To help Americans understand the reality of the situation in Israel, can you give a simple analysis of the problem?
The problem is occupation. Unfortunately, no one is acknowledging it. You always hear in the news about violence, terrorism, weapons and chemicals but never about occupation of Palestinian lands.
We cannot ignore the fact that young Palestinians are carrying out suicide attacks with the objective to kill as many Israelis as possible.
It is true, but have we ever stopped to think of the reasons behind the attacks? When you take from someone their lands, their means of survival, their dignity, what's left? Some people call it terrorism, but other people will call it resistance.
Why do you think the road map for peace didn't show any meaningful success until now?
The road map is a very good plan for peace, but it cannot be successful if the Israelis are still occupying the Palestinians’ land. In principle the road map is a great plan — it provides the Israelis security and the Palestinians economic stability. Working hand in hand would be the success of this plan.
Why is it so difficult?
If each is going to stay one-track-minded, the violence on both sides will never end.
I think the Palestinians and the Israelis should put aside their differences, respect each other's beliefs and each other's borders, and work for their common interest so they can go ahead toward peace.
What about those who say the Palestinians are terrorists?
Terrorism is a broad word and each has his own definition. You can't put all people into one bag.
For the sake of argument, if there are terrorists among the Palestinians, so there are terrorists among Israelis as well. But again, people [should] look into the reasons for people to react violently. If those reasons are eliminated, the terrorism will be eliminated as well.
Terrorism is a word that is being used in a very discriminating way. By continuously calling Palestinians terrorists, psychologically you're turning them into terrorists.
When will this cycle of violence stop?
Every day we delay the peace, new generations will have even more reason to be violent — that goes on both sides, Palestinian and Israeli.
Do you think the security wall is helping the situation?
No, I don't. It is unrealistic. By having the wall built where it is, it has parted children from their schools, farmers from their land, workers from their jobs and sick people from the hospitals. All that will make the Palestinians more and more violent and create hatred against the Israelis.
The money spent to build the wall should have been used for peace and unity rather than to separate them.
Is there any hope for peace at this point?
I always have been optimistic. Besides, we have no other alternative but to make peace.
By involving more countries, such as [those in] Europe, and the United Nations, it will increase the chances for fairness and peace. With many respects to the United States, to be alone to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is unreasonable.
Do you think the United States trying to solve the problem itself is part of the problem?
It is the problem. By seeking involvement form other countries, it would create a better understanding of the Middle East. It is for the benefit of the United States to be more connected with Europe and to give more acting roles to Europe in the peace process.
What does it take, in your opinion, to solve the Israeli-Arab conflict?
There are two major points in this conflict. First, a better understanding of the Arab world, and this is where Europe's involvement is a must because it has a better understanding of the region.
Second, acknowledging Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands. By acknowledging the occupation, you can put an end to it and move forward to peace. Without an understanding of the region's mentality and the acknowledgement of the invasions, there will be no room but for violence.
What can the Church do? Is the Church doing enough?
The Church is not apart from the whole situation. Patriarchs and bishops from all the churches are meeting regularly and discussing the situation, providing relief to the people of the Holy Land. They are working with Palestinians as well as Israelis.
The patriarchs and bishops are looking at the future of the Holy Land. They are playing a role of reconciliation by inviting groups from both sides to do more for peace. The Church is for everybody and will continue to work for both sides.
What can American Catholics do?
American Catholics are doing a lot through different organizations to help the relief of the refugees as well as other projects to lift the burden. But I invite Americans to be more involved and have opinions after their own assessment of the situation. Here in the Arab world it's always thought that the Jews influence the American government.
I would like to hear more about the Catholic Church's involvement in the politics of the United States. After all, the Holy Land is the heritage not only of the Jews but also to the Christians as well as the Muslims. The Holy Land represents to the Jews the Promised Land, for the Muslims an Islamic land and, for us Christians, the Holy Land is the source of Christianity, the cradle of Christianity.
Do you have any last comments?
Jesus’ words say it all: Love each other. With love, many things will be solved. We don't realize how strong the word love is in our lives. We should realize that love is a gift of God, and it's a way of how we give ourselves to each other. That's what we need today.
----- EXCERPT: Melkite Patriarch on Holy Land Conflict ----- EXTENDED BODY: Doreen Abi Raad ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Turn Off Cell Phones, Irish Archbishop Tells Flock
INDEPENDENT CATHOLIC NEWS, June 8 — Archbishop Sean Brady of Armagh, Northern Ireland, told Catholics at a Mass on June 6 that they should turn off their TVs, stereos and cell phones for one day each week.
If people did that to reflect and pray, he said, “they would notice a significant improvement in their mental, emotional and spiritual well-being,” Independent Catholic News reported.
“There are fundamental changes in Irish society that are hardly for the better,” Archbishop Brady said. “They are worrying signs that our reputation for hospitality and neighborliness is in danger of being reduced to a commercial facade, a mask we wear for the tourists, an essential part of the ‘Irish brand.’”
“We also live in a world of constant noise and incessant rush,” he continued. “Our ears are constantly exposed to the ceaseless chatter of talk radio, the rap and pop of digitized and downloaded music, and the endless melodies of mobile phones as they ring in the street, the car and yes, even in the church.”
Australian Bishop: ‘Two Mums’ Is Too Much for Kids
CATHNEWS.COM, June 13 — A segment on the ABC-TV children's program “Play School” is inappropriate and would be confusing to young children, according to Australian Bishop Christopher Toohey.
“Play School” recently featured a segment depicting a lesbian union in which a young girl went to a park with a pointed reference to her “two mums,” CathNews.com reported.
The segment has also been criticized by Prime Minister John Howard, Opposition Leader Mark Latham, Communications Minister Daryl Williams and Church groups, the website noted.
“Kids need some kind of view of the world consistent with human experience,” said Bishop Toohey, head of the Diocese of Wilcannia-Forbes and secretary of the Bishops’ Committee for the Family and for Life, “and I would think that the concept of ‘two mums’ would be very difficult for little kids to handle.”
Western Prayers ‘Outsourced’ to Indian Churches
In churches in the Kerala state on the southwestern coast, which has the highest concentration of India's Catholics, prayers for local residents are said for a donation of about 90 cents, the New York Times reported. Requests from the United States, however, typically come with donations of $5.
Requests range from prayers for the repose of the soul of a deceased relative to thanksgiving for a favor received to a prayer offering for a newborn.
Critics, however, say they are shocked such requests are being sent offshore, or outsourced, a word normally used for office jobs that migrate to countries with lower wages.
But Father Vincent Kundukulam of St. Joseph Pontifical Seminary in Aluva, near Cochin, said the practice is decades old.
“The Church is not a business enterprise,” he said, “and it is sad and pathetic to connect this practice to outsourcing software work to cheaper labor destinations.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Talking to Catholic Voters DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Catholic voters are notoriously unpredictable. But Marguerite Ozburn, a 36-year-old communications specialist with Boeing, makes no bones about which candidate she prefers in the upcoming presidential election.
“I support President Bush,” she said. “The presidential candidate being pro-life is huge. It's important to me where they stand not only on abortion but also on euthanasia, cloning, stem-cell research and all the life issues. I look at that first because that's the crux of who we are as human beings.”
Those sentiments are echoed by Gary Musso, 62, a retired human-resources professional from Clovis, Calif., who served in the Department of the Air Force as a civilian.
“I'm keen to see Mr. Bush stay in office because his decisions seem to be more principled than Mr. [John] Kerry's,” he said.
When it comes to issues, Musso said he's concerned about his Social Security benefits.
Mitch Miller, on the other hand, is a member of the Internet discussion group Catholics for John Kerry and has environmental reasons for not voting for the Republican incumbent.
“We must have a national culture in which care and sustainability of the environment that sustains us is encouraged,” he wrote on the site June 18. “The person with the greatest power to promote this culture is the president of the United States.”
He said Bush and the “religious right” place too much emphasis on “imposing their will” on a woman's choice whether to give birth than on the “health of the presently-alive human race.”
Ono Ekeh, the founder of the Catholics for John Kerry group and a former staffer at the U.S. bishops’ conference, declined an interview with the Register. But he has defended his support for the pro-abortion candidate, saying Kerry would fund social programs that would make abortion less attractive for a woman in a crisis pregnancy.
Ekeh told the National Catholic Reporter that he believes Kerry's “entire vision resonates with Catholic social teaching.”
— Patrick Novecosky
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: What Would Reagan Do? DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Forgive the headline. We're not trying to compare the recently deceased 40th president to Jesus in a play on the popular Christian WWJD slogan. No one here wants to deify, or even canonize, Ronald Reagan
But it's others who have raised this topic.
Members of the Reagan family, notably the former first lady, have called on President George W. Bush to allow more federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research. The fact that Reagan was sick for so long with Alzheimer's disease makes it very tempting to use him as a poster boy for a stem-cell campaign. Forget for a moment that some scientists have stated that embryonic stem-cell therapy probably won't ever cure Alzheimer's. That hasn't stopped leading advocates and influential publications from joining the chorus.
Folks are invoking the “spirit of Ronald Reagan” on this one. Newsweek's Jonathan Alter has even claimed that Reagan would have approved of more money for the research.
Now, wait a minute! What makes Alter so sure? Has he never read any of the pro-life speeches and letters Reagan wrote — including a celebrated essay on abortion that he published while in office — against the advice of his political advisers?
In his 1988 Personhood Proclamation, Reagan declared the “unalienable personhood of every American, from the moment of conception.”
By now, we've all become pretty familiar with the connection the Church and the pro-life movement have been pointing out between embryonic stem-cell research and abortion. Obtaining such a cell for research requires destruction of the boy or girl embryo from which it comes.
While it is not illegal to conduct such experiments in the United States, Bush three years ago forbid the spending of taxpayers’ money on any further research. He recognizes that many Americans would be deeply offended if they knew they were contributing to the destruction of nascent life — even for a hoped-for good result. Besides, there are perfectly moral ways to obtain stem cells, from umbilical-cord blood or bone marrow, without killing an embryo.
But Bush's critics seem to be adopting the mantle of Reagan and saying: “Mr. President, tear down this wall” you have erected between the sick and the promise of science.
Well, if you're going to compare stem-cell opposition to communism, let's ask the question: Just why did Reagan oppose communism? Paul Kengor, author of God and Ronald Reagan, said it was the godlessness of the system. But besides that, it was a matter of freedom — God-given freedom. Reagan said in a 1982 speech to the British Parliament, “It is the Soviet Union that runs against the tide of history by denying freedom and human dignity to its citizens.”
“He believed that God wanted people to be free,” Kengor said in an interview with Christianity Today.
In his 1983 essay “Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation,” Reagan wrote, “America was founded by men and women who shared a vision of the value of each and every individual.”
Freedom is the opposite of slavery, which is using another person for one's own good. Christian doctrine is clear about that, and Reagan's great contemporary, Pope John Paul II, has written beautifully about the necessity of loving another person because he is created in the image and likeness of God, not because he can give us something we need.
As it turns out, Reagan banned federal financing of fetal tissue research. One likes to think he would see in embryonic stem-cell research not the hope that science and technology would liberate people from Alzheimer's or Parkinson's or diabetes but a utilitarian monster promising to deliver some uncertain good on the backs of uniquely-created human beings.
Those tiny persons would be denied their right to develop into fetuses and babies because someone else's cure is deemed more important than their lives. Or society is more important than the individual. With the “graying” of America, there is the prospect of millions of elderly suffering from debilitating diseases. For the sake of society, which faces the prospect of spending billions of dollars in health care, certain boys and girls — embryos — will have to be sacrificed.
It seems to us that there's not much difference between that and the ideology Reagan spent his life and presidency fighting.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Penitential Plea
Regarding “Catholic Hospitals to Study Implications of Pope's Words (May 9-15):
The article stated that we would be obliged to follow the Holy Father's position in our living wills. My living will states that I want nothing that would prolong my dying if I am in a vegetative state. That includes intravenous and feeding tubes, etc. I would like to be able to die when God calls me. I am afraid that, if my life is prolonged in suffering, it could lead to despair. I prefer to die a natural death and hope I will be in the state of grace right up to the end.
I have seen many people kept alive even for years because of extraordinary means and it seems to me to be a cruel thing to do to someone unless they themselves want it that way. My doctor recently noted on my chart at my request that, should I ever be diagnosed with cancer, I will do nothing about it. I would like to be able to offer my sufferings up to God for good purposes, especially for my children, and be kept as comfortable as possible until I die.
When I discussed my wishes with the priest in confession, he told me for my penance to write to you and further research the matter. Please help!
Name withheld
We Are Winning
I have always enjoyed reading your excellent newspaper from start to finish but was especially taken by your fine editorial of May 23-29, “The Torturers Next Door.” In it you rightfully trace the source of the abuse of the prisoners’ scandal in Iraq to our bankrupt American culture. Respice fontem is the old Latin catchword: find the source.
The sex and violence that seem to be the very warp and woof of our society have, God forbid, made torturers of some of our soldiers. No wonder the Arabic world is loath to adopt our version of democracy, wanting no part of the licenses it tolerates or promotes.
In heartening contrast is the adjoining commentary by Cathy Ruse on “The Value of Life: Karen Hughes Was Right” (May 23-29). Here she presents some encouraging statistics. “In the last 10 years,” she writes, “there has been a seismic shift in public opinion on abortion … Today more Americans call themselves ‘pro-life’ than ‘pro-choice’ — 49% to 45%.” For those under 30 years of age the percentage is even higher: 60% think abortion should never be legal. And we might add — more and more of our bishops are speaking out boldly and forcefully against those who want to exterminate life.
We are winning the fight to reclaim our nation for God! May everyone redouble his and her prayers and sacrifices to see that this beloved land is once again God-fearing and God-obedient.
ARNOLD PAROLINE Montebello, California
Painful Perspective
It was painful to read the recent letter you published from Trappist Father James Connor (“Don't Judge Politicians,” May 30-June 5).
Father Connor seems to block out the reality of life in the United States. He is concerned that some U.S. bishops have focused on the contradiction of public officials who support abortion but would receive the Eucharist.
Father Connor, it is not that these officials are ignoring the abortion holocaust. That would be a serious offense for them and for us. But the Kennedys, Kerrys and McGreeveys are playing an active role in this unspeakable crime. They are consciously helping to kill innocent children and harm their mothers for life. They are not sitting on the sidelines doing nothing. They are an integral part of this massive evil.
Bless the bishops who have spoken out. May all of our bishops get on the same page with Pope John Paul II and the Church.
J.P. STANTON Jenkintown, Pennsylvania
Eucharistic Confrontation
I want to share my thoughts after reading an article in the May 9-15 issue titled “Invigorated by the Holy Father.”
The article interviewed Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick about the issue of pro-abortion politicians being denied Communion. This article really got me thinking. When he said, “I find it hard to see the Eucharist as a moment of confrontation,” I thought about John 6:22-71 when Jesus gave his Eucharistic discourse to his followers. He confronted them with the teaching on the Eucharist. As a result, “many of his followers withdrew and did not walk with him anymore” (John 6:66). Then he turned to his disciples and asked, “Are you going to leave me, also?” (John 6:67). The Eucharist was a point of confrontation for Christ, yet I believe there's a distinction to be made. It was during his teaching, not during the celebration of the Eucharist.
With this in mind I turned my thoughts to the Last Supper, when Jesus celebrated the Eucharist. During this celebration, Christ shared his body and blood with Judas after “the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas to betray him” (John 13:2). Jesus knew Judas’ intentions: “One of you will betray me” (John 13:21).
Yet there is another distinction I believe needs to be made. Judas’ sin was not yet a public sin. Imagine Judas obstinately persisting in his betrayal of Our Lord after the Resurrection and coming to the disciples to receive Communion. Would the disciples give it to him? Would Our Lord give it to him? I think it would be a contradiction to do so considering the Eucharist is the sacrament that expresses our unity and bond of charity.
I respect Cardinal McCarrick's concern that the Eucharist not become a “political tool,” but I do not think this is what our courageous bishops are doing who stand up for our Communion in faith. We are in the midst of a spiritual battle, good vs. evil, truth vs. deception. We need to stand up for the truth and make it clear.
I would like to see the bishops take advantage of this opportunity and go a step further clarifying the Church's teaching on contraception, considering that the issue of marriage is at the front of the battlefield right now also. I think it would be pastorally unwise to come out and say that those who are practicing contraception should not receive Communion. It would be better to encourage them to receive the sacrament of reconciliation and begin their journey back to full communion with the Church.
DAVID SCHROEDER Ripon, Wisconsin
Parallel Perfidies
Thank you for your continuing coverage regarding Catholic politicians and abortion. I have a question for the 46% of Catholics who would vote for a pro-abortion candidate.
If a politician refuses to be faithful to his or her church and the teachings of that church, why should we trust that he or she will be any more faithful to his or her country or the laws of that country?
E. MACKLIN Corpus Christi, Texas
Miracles Afoot
Thank you so much for your article of Jan. 25, “Nun's Program Gives Hope (And Faith) to Addicts.”
My husband and I are the very blessed and grateful parents of a daughter who lives in one of the “houses” of Comunita Cenacolo in Italy. Sister Elvira emphasizes that the journey of the child is truly meant to be the journey of the whole family toward ever-deeper conversion. This is our experience as we continue to grow in our hope and faith — certainly the most important journey of any life. What a gift Sister Elvira gives to the whole Church in her work with us.
Our daughter was not a drug addict but had other issues. She has been in community for a year and a half and I'd like to quote from her last letter to us: “I'm praying for the peace in my heart to forgive … I am beginning to trust in God for everything.”
These are words of a miracle occurring in our very own family. I'd like to encourage any parent who is at a loss with a very troubled teen to go to the website of the community today: www.comunitacenacolo. it/eng/index.htm.
Our trip into the community was guided by the Blessed Mother herself, I am sure. She is your mother, too. Ask her about it.
THERESE AND JOHN NOECKER St. Louis
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Holy Mother Bus Stop DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Three cheers for Dwight Longenecker's challenging and insightful article “Liberal? Conservative? Keep ‘Em Guessing” (May 23-29).
With each paragraph, I felt like shouting out “Yes!” louder and louder. At last, a commentator who is not interested in telling us who's right and who's wrong. At last, a commentator who's not interested in telling us how to think. Finally, an author who admits he doesn't have a corner on the truth and who doesn't demonize everyone who disagrees with him. What a refreshing piece to read in a Church that is becoming more and more polarized.
Longenecker's perspective that the Church is more like a bus stop than a club seems to have fallen out of favor recently, much to the detriment of our ability to witness to the Gospel in a pluralistic world. When all we do is tell people whether they're “in” or not, we're not really manifesting the love of Christ to them. When all we do is check someone's positions on one or two issues — and make final judgment on the whole of their lives based upon these positions — we show that we've lost the capacity to wonder at all the goodness God has placed within that person. And what's probably worst of all, when we “put other people into neat categories in order to dispose of them” (as Longenecker writes), we're committing a sin against the “right-to-life” principles we hold so dear.
If every life is sacred, then every person deserves respect and honor, even if we disagree with him — even if he is advocating something we consider dangerous and even heretical. Neat little categories such as “liberal” and “conservative” do nothing more than reduce the amazing — and admittedly frustrating — complexity of a beloved creation of God into a couple of sound bites.
Longenecker is right: It's very hard to have a respectful dialogue with someone we have categorized and dismissed. And where there is no dialogue, there is no room for the Holy Spirit. And where there is no room for the Holy Spirit, there is no room for the love of Christ, which can transform everyone, liberal and conservative alike.
MARK JAMESON Fruit Cove, Florida
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Reagan's Christianity DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:I write this with a certain element of shame as a Catholic/ Christian and as a person who now realizes how easy it is to fall into traps of prejudging and even hypocrisy.
The death of President Ronald Reagan has been an eye-opener for millions of Americans like me. First, let me state the necessary disclaimer. I am not a very objective observer here, having voted for President Reagan with gusto — twice. In fact, I have never voted with such enthusiasm before or since.
But after a week of emotionally and, yes, spiritually draining ceremony, I see I fell into the trap that viewed Reagan as a relatively nonreligious person who held some kind of nebulous version of nonspecific Christianity.
How wrong I was.
I fell into other traps as well: most seriously, the one in which I felt somehow better and more in tune with God because I was holding up my end of my Catholic faith and trying to deepen it with introspection, regular Mass attendance and a self-congratulatory sense that I was taking my faith seriously. You can insert the pride going before a fall line here.
It took this “simple” man, this non-Catholic man who never stepped foot inside either an Ivy League bastion of higher education or some similar Jesuit-run institution to show us the meaning of a deeply felt, honestly believed, reasoned faith. And even more importantly, Reagan showed us that stopping that faith from guiding our public acts is an exercise in pointlessness.
There was very little about Reagan's life that was pointless.
During that week of special remembrance after the death of President Reagan we began to hear the mantra of how he learned his optimistic outlook from his non-Catholic and very devout Christian mother. She apparently took every opportunity she could to inform her young son that nothing happens on this Earth without a God-guided purpose to it. She infused in her son the very core Christian staple that everything, both good and bad, happens for a reason.
Well, even in death, Reagan has been able to manufacture a victory of a deeper meaning.
We really do see him in a very different light now. The recurring theme of the spiritual during his lying in state, his funeral in D.C. and his funeral in Simi Valley, Calif., has made an indelible impression on us. Besides the political man, whose legacy will no doubt be debated in perpetuity, there is the legacy of his family, the love he in his own peculiar way imparted to them and of the spiritual imprint he made on them and, in the course of the public mourning process, on people like me.
This was a man of a spiritual nature who loved his children very much in his own imperfect style and a man who might not have worn his love of God on his sleeve in an obvious manner, but by the way he impacted his wife and children, that love cannot be so readily dismissed.
The last eulogy at the funeral in Simi Valley was delivered by the late president's son Ron. After President Reagan's other two surviving children had expressed their spiritual connection with their father, the youngest Reagan child told us how his father's faith, especially in the afterglow of surviving an assassin's bullet, was lifted up with a renewed sense of purpose. It might be interesting to note here that Pope John Paul II had a similar response after he survived an assassin.
Ron Reagan Jr. told the assembled mourners at Simi Valley and the assembled mourners who observed in silence on the other side of their television sets how his father's renewed self-evaluation of purpose as it related to doing God's will was not viewed as a “mandate” to be imposed on others but rather as a personal “obligation” to be lived out on the part of President Reagan.
In this not-so-brave new world we have been given by God, politicians and the people they seek to govern spend an awful lot of time debating what constitutes a moral mandate and what constitutes a moral obligation. Many Catholic politicians, hitching the stars of their political futures on the wagon John F. Kennedy first rode more than 40 years ago, wish to drive a wedge between these two propositions.
Reagan, the “simple” Protestant president whom I so wrongly undervalued as a man of God, understood how one could not, in truth, believe certain unalienable truths and not turn those beliefs into corresponding public and private acts.
The word great is overused in our culture and applies to everything from a steroid-saturated out-fielder who can hit home runs to breakfast cereals that taste like chocolate-chip cookies. In its frequency of use, the word great has lost most of its voltage.
The Reagan funeral week was not immune to the same amount of in-the-moment gushing.
But whatever President Reagan's status might be through the sands of time, I will always bear in mind his beautiful, meaningful and even lovely Christianity to being his greatest lasting treasure. And I think he would have made one great Catholic.
Robert Brennan writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: This was a man whose spiritual quotient I had seriously underestimated. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert Brennan ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: The New Renaissance Won't Start in a Classroom DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:I recently met with a group of educators who are the core team for a new Catholic university.
Eager to make their university a center for the arts, they have lofty plans to create a creative educational environment for young Christian painters, musicians, singers, actors and filmmakers to integrate their lives of faith with mastery of their respective art forms. More and more religious colleges and universities are jumping on this bandwagon, spending millions of dollars to create arts programs that are competitive with the best secular schools.
As one Ph.D. noted to me about his college's plans to build a large new art center building: “We want to spark a new Renaissance!” It's a good sound bite but probably not a good strategy. The urgency to be competitive with the best secular schools shouldn't blind us to the fact that even their classrooms aren't producing great artists.
Two of my sisters have advanced degrees in music. I myself went to graduate school for cinema, and I have spent the last five years teaching writers on both the graduate and undergraduate level. The main thing I have learned in the art classroom is that classrooms have little to do with the creation of beautiful works of art. The achievement of a master of fine arts degree in whatever discipline, from even a top university, says nothing at all about whether an individual is an artist or even a competent craftsman.
The way to foment a second renaissance is to recreate the origins of the first.
The Renaissance flowed out of studios, not classrooms. Its patrons were princes and pastors, not professors.
‘You Have No Talent’
I am not sure for what kind of life university classrooms really prepare young people, but they certainly aren't petri dishes for artistic talent. If anything, the impersonal, pragmatic environment of contemporary academia — anonymous rows of young people, most half awake, subjected to long cycles of monotonous lectures in sterile rooms — seems calculated to crush the passion for life and color and texture and sound that is the seed of the arts.
The most that can be achieved in a university art classroom is a disconnected handing on of the history and theory of the art forms and possibly some rudimentary technique. The main value that one might find in a university art classroom is a community of artists.
Community and art have a necessary connection.
But the one thing essential to the production of beautiful art is never going to happen in a classroom. That is, no teacher is ever going to say to a paying student, “You don't belong here. You don't have any talent.” Universities have a remoteness from the student, who is basically a consumer paying for services.
Unable to make talent judgments, university classrooms do a huge disservice to everyone involved.
The primary victim of the democratization of the classroom is the talent-less student who moves through an expensive art program regardless of the fact that he does not have the chops to make a professional go of it.
The second level of injustices are suffered by the talented student whose work cannot be elevated out of sense of giving offense to those who are mediocre. True genius will find no challenge in the leveling mediocrity of the institution, and the gifted end up with an inflated sense of their untested talents.
Next, the professors of this system are victims of the futile task to try to teach art without actually cleaving to any “fascist” aesthetic standards. Ultimately the whole society is victimized by the dreadful art regurgitated on it, as mastery of craft becomes less and less of an ideal.
There is nothing egalitarian about artistic talent, a fact that is an ongoing source of outrage to the melancholic Marxists who hold sway in pretty much every humanities department at the top universities.
I remember one of my grad-school professors becoming enraged at me when I asked if she thought any of my class’ final projects were ultimately any good. “How dare you hinder the right of self-expression by asking that kind of question!” she said. Having already gotten my grades for the term, I said with a shrug, “How dare this university charge me $30,000 for a transcript of meaningless grades.”
The art classroom reduces the artist to a technician and negates the sense that art proceeds from a whole person. Paraphrasing Our Lord: “From the abundance of the heart, the artist expresses.” Art comes as much from the broodings of the heart as it does from the manipulation of the brush or chisel. A song begins in the soul, not on a keyboard. Artists need formation, not education, and formation can only happen in a one-to-one relationship.
For all these reasons, the classroom model is not what produced Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci. Part of our journey to renew the lists of great artists in the Church will be to rediscover and then renew the methods that ultimately produced the most beautiful art of human history. Principally, we must restore the master-apprentice model of not studying the arts but handing them on.
Great art comes out of community. It was in the little community gathered around the master painter, Perugino, that Raphael's talent was first revealed and then nurtured. At age 14, Michaelangelo was sent by his father to apprentice with the famous artist Domenico Ghirlandaio. Mozart was mentored by his father, himself an accomplished violinist.
The masters of old saw themselves as having an important place in the society. They were charged to preserve and hand on beauty-making techniques by mentoring the next generation. “Pay attention now. I am going to show you my great-grandfather's secret for making a mosaic glitter in that special way.”
Renewing this tradition will require that our older artists start seeing themselves back in the heart of the society and not on the fringes, as has been the story of the 20th century. How to induce them to bravely let go of the isolated misery they have been clinging to in the name of defining self-expression? (How about just, “Let it go, guys”?)
The apprentice-master model of the first Renaissance carried a built-in means to preserve excellence. Beyond the simple civic sense of the masters, they were also intent on extending their own creative legacies through the work of their students. So they were rigorous in the demands they placed on their apprentices and rarely wasted their efforts on those who had no talent.
The life of the apprentice was grueling, humbling and on a few days that made all the others worthwhile, exhilarating.
In the long hours of the studio, the young artists learned much more than technique from their master. It would be the lessons in between the craft pointers that would form them most in their vocation as artists.
“I remember the awe I felt the first time I was ever paid for one of my statues,” the master would relate with a glint of remembrance. There would be the lessons about creativity: “Whenever my well runs dry, I know it is time to go in search of water in other places.” There would be lessons about the artist's life: “Sometimes, the patron will want less from you than you can give. Be better than they demand.” The intimate lessons of the studio addressed the artist's soul, a place inaccessible to a university classroom.
It is good that the People of God are finally looking to address the problem of the dearth of beauty in our cultural landscape. But we need to do some careful thinking before we jump on academia as the solution to the problem. You can't graduate an artist. They require inspiration and nurturing.
After all, those are the things the Church was created to do.
Barbara R. Nicolosi is the executive director of Act One: Writing for Hollywood, a community of budding and veteran screenwriters.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barbara R. Nicolosi ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Ronald Reagan's Final Challenge to America DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Of the five days of national mourning that followed the initial news flash announcing the loss, I believe it will be Wednesday, June 9, that will cling to my memory with the greatest clarity.
That was the day they processed the flag-draped casket bearing the body through the streets of Washington before resting it in the Rotunda of the Capitol building. And that day I did something I do only very rarely, and almost never have done while stationed in front of a television set. I wept.
Something hit me when the historic caisson paused for the first time. All were still except the riderless horse accompanying the fallen rider. Oblivious to the former president's empty equestrian boots set backward in its stirrups, the animal appeared to be anxious, if not ready to run. For long seconds, the only sound was the discordant rush of wind rattling a microphone. It sounded like an unseen chariot race hurtling past on its way to heaven.
Finally the lean stallion relaxed. That was when the image — manipulative as I know some will accuse its makers of being — burned itself into my brain. It took a few minutes for my thoughts to coalesce into a coherent observation. When they did, I realized it wasn't just the sense of loss over President Reagan no longer being on this earth that was choking me up.
For the scene also amplified the sinking feeling I get in the pit of my stomach whenever I think about what has become of the country I love in the years since I grew up. And that happened not during Reagan's Washington years but earlier, in the 1960s and ’70s.
America was all but cracking up at the time, but you'd never have known it in my neighborhood. For one thing, every kid had two parents at home (except one friend who had lost his mother to a tragic illness). For another, most of our moms were home most of the time. Things weren't perfect by any means, but they were more or less rightly ordered.
And then there was the culture. Yes, it had its slick, dark and exploitative side. But some wise hand, working behind the scenes with the grownups around us, held the seedy stuff in check. Together they relegated smut to the margins of society.
Back then, dads and moms really did seem to know best. Or at least they didn't celebrate the sweet seductions they surely sniffed on the breeze, much less indulge themselves and act like they expected us to do the same.
By now, it seems, the dark side has long since expanded exponentially, displacing the moral order we knew and overwhelming the cultural mainstream. In fact, it has by now become the mainstream. Exit love of neighbor; enter tolerance. So long, community; hello radical-rights assertion. Nice knowing you, First Amendment; right this way, freedom of filth. And so on.
Watching the memorial procession June 9, I thought about the depth of our loss and recalled how for a heartening and hopeful time it really did look like America just might be able to take back the night. That time was when Ronald Wilson Reagan was in the White House. I thought: Who's going to fill those empty boots now?
The answer was delivered two days later by no less likely a messenger than Patti Davis, the Reagans’ famously rebellious daughter.
Davis told how, when she was a child, her father took her out onto the grounds of the Reagan family ranch a few days after a raging brush fire had swept through. The blaze had left a charred field. The “Gipper,” a man of deep Christian conviction, gently bent down and pointed to something the young girl had not noticed amid the destruction: Some tiny green shoots were beginning to peek up out of the ashes.
“You see?” he said to her. “New life always comes out of death. It looks like nothing could ever grow in this field again, but things do.”
If there's a better symbol than that for the kind of new springtime our burned-out nation needs right now, I'd like to know what it could be.
Nor could the subtext have been more striking. For who could forget that our most optimistic and forward-looking president had been missing in action for nearly a decade? Now it was as though he had come home, rallied and, just before he rode off into his final sunset, turned to leave us with a bold, yet kind, word of encouragement.
Encouragement, not in pursuit of some arbitrary achievement for which we can pat ourselves on the back later — but toward the goal of winning the prize for which God has called each of us heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Had God somehow summoned him to speak at his own funeral, Ronald Reagan would surely have urged us to keep on believing that, in America, there are always new shoots rising up from the ashes. All we have to do is see to their care, feeding — and watering. I knew all those tears would be good for something.
Mr. President, as you gave your spurs one last kick you inspired us, as you had so often before, to quit looking back and keep pressing ahead. May God reward your faith in him in the next life just as you rewarded our trust in you in this one.
David Pearson is the Register's features editor.
----- EXCERPT: True confession: The death of Ronald Reagan got to me. ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Pearson ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Big-Family Benefits DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Once — just once — I'd like to be able to pick up the mail and a gallon of milk without feeling like a public spectacle. Yet I must confess: Making my way through this secularized world with six kids in tow isn't all bad.
Consider, for example, my visit to a local pharmacy in January to pick up a prescription for my infant daughter's ear infection. As I approached the pharmacist's counter with all of my children, I was dismayed to find a long line of weary customers waiting for their orders. Dispirited, I gathered my troops and we made our way to the back of the line.
An older woman ahead of us offered little hope. “I've been here for 20 minutes,” she said.
Then I noticed a young man behind the counter who was watching my sons wrestle in the cough syrup aisle. Just as the baby awoke in her car seat and commenced a feverish fuss, he caught my eye and asked, “What's the name, please, ma'am?”
“Bean,” I answered. He nodded at me and turned to his co-workers. “Let's get moving on the Bean order!” Within minutes, he called my name. Somewhat sheepishly, I made my way past a pack of disgruntled customers, paid for the medication and headed for home.
I have further found that there is a distinct advantage in bringing along a horde of children when I visit the library. I should note here that I am notorious for abusing my library borrowing privileges. In fact, I think I still owe my former hometown library $2,000 plus interest for a book I never returned in high school.
When I misuse my local library these days, however, the lenient librarians there practically reward me for it. They coo over my children and gush that they don't know how I do it. When Baby Gabrielle inches her way across the children's room floor and pulls every single book out from the lower shelves, they stop me from picking her up. “Oh, let her!” they say with a laugh. “We needed to dust those shelves anyway.”
When I try to check out a stack of books and the computer flags my account, they investigate the problem. When they discover that I still have books out from last November, they smile indulgently.
“Just try to remember those Thanksgiving craft books the next time you come,” they say as they override the computer's veto and hand me my books. With a few more oohs and ahhs and one more “Isn't she amazing?” I gather my kids and my stack of ill-gotten goods and we head out the door.
In addition to eliciting public compassion and understanding, having many children procures our family material rewards as well. Of course there's the ever-popular child tax credit, which adds up to a hefty sum for our household each tax season. Also, guess which family in our parish always gets to bring home the leftover doughnuts on “Coffee and Doughnut” Sundays?
Even better, our pastor caught up with us after Mass one Palm Sunday. With a twinkle in his eye, he handed us an envelope and explained that an anonymous parishioner had asked him to give it to us. Scrawled on the outside was this message: “Buy something special for the children this Easter.” Inside was a $100 bill.
While I might still occasionally indulge in a bit of bellyaching about being a family “circus” every time we enter the public view, my grumbling is now tempered by the fact that, besides the typical gawking, our “difference” earns us fringe benefits as well.
In truth, what makes us different is God's abundant blessing and, when I consider things from that perspective, I have no complaints at all.
Danielle Bean writes from Center Harbor, New Hampshire.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Danielle Bean ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Was the Arimathean Here? DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Chances are that, if you've heard of Glastonbury, England, you've heard something of the legend of the Glastonbury Thorn — and how the bush is associated with Joseph of Arimathea, the Jewish leader who loaned his tomb for the burial of Jesus.
Well, if you come to Glaston-bury, a small town in the western county of Somerset, you can see the arboreal attraction for yourself — and learn all about its intriguing origins. More on that later, for there's more to Glastonbury than just the famous species of shrub that flowers just for Christmas and springtime.
Upon arriving, you'll first want to head for the Shrine of Our Lady. This you will find in the small Catholic church on the main street, almost opposite the ruins of the magnificently medieval Glaston-bury Abbey. As soon as you enter, you will see a lovely statue of the Blessed Mother standing above the main altar and surrounded on either side by a splendid tapestry. This tells you, if you look closely enough, the story of Glastonbury and explains just why this place is so sacred. At the back of the church you will find cards with the beautiful Glaston-bury Prayer. Do take one and join the many pilgrims who have come here over the years and begged Our Lady's intercession in this hallowed place.
Glastonbury is dear and familiar to me. I have visited it in every season — seen the famous ruins of the abbey decked with snow, glowing mellow in summer sunshine and drenched by autumn rain. As a Londoner, I have brought pilgrims here by coach, a cheerful crowd of us, praying the rosary as we hurried down the motorway. (The journey takes about two hours; you pass Stonehenge on the way.) I have also come here on private visits, as we have family nearby, and dropped in for a quiet prayer.
Now, about that legend. To understand the story properly, you must open your New Testament and read how, after the Crucifixion, Jesus’ body was laid in a tomb offered by Joseph of Arimathea, one of the Jewish leaders. From this tomb, our Savior rose gloriously from the dead, showed himself to his apostles and, in due course, sent them out to bring the Gospel to the whole world.
For ages, people in this corner of Britain have believed that Joseph of Arimathea came here. This was a port in Roman times — remains of a Roman jetty were in fact found here not long ago — and the whole of this stretch of the western coast of Britain was a place where tin was mined and sold to passing traders. For hundreds of years, the local tin miners used to say that Joseph was “in the trade.” By this they meant that Joseph of Arimathea was a tin merchant, taking the metal back to sell in his native Palestine.
And why not? What more natural thing than that he should see the risen Jesus, believe and flee the persecution that faced the early Church? And what would have stopped him from joining with a band of like-minded new Christians in bringing the Gospel message to distant Roman shores?
From Time Immemorial
As for the legend, it goes this way: Upon landing in Glastonbury, tired from the long journey, Joseph pushed his walking stick — the branch of a hawthorn tree — into the ground. Then he lay down to rest and fell asleep. When he woke up, he saw that the staff had taken root, grown and begun to blossom. There he left it and there it and its descendants have flowered every Christmas and Easter ever since.
Certainly, the thorn bush that thrives to this day on Weary-All Hill (where the Roman jetty was found) is of a type native not to Britain but to the Holy Land. The people of Glastonbury are proud of the thorn. That's why they ceremonially cut a tiny sprig from it each year and send it to the Queen in London for Christmas.
Whatever the truth of the Arimathea tale, it was believed by the monks who built the great abbey here, centered on a tiny wattle church dedicated to Our Lady — the origins of which are so ancient that medieval documents simply refer to it as having stood “from time immemorial.”
The abbey thrived for centuries. Here, in the early Middle Ages, during excavations following a fire, monks claimed to find the tomb of Britain's “once and future king” — Arthur, along with Queen Guinevere. You will find the place marked to this day among the abbey ruins.
Ruins? Yes, alas, of course, because the abbey was ransacked by government agents during the reign of Henry VIII, who, seeking to divorce his wife and marry his mistress, announced himself as head of the Church of England. So began the tragic break with Rome that was to seal the fate of the Catholic faith in Britain for the next 400 years. The last abbot of Glastonbury, the heroic and saintly Richard Whiting — one of the canonized Forty Martyrs of England and Wales — was dragged to the top of Glastonbury tor. There he was hung, drawn and quartered within sight of the abbey where he had worked and prayed.
Prayers on the Breeze
The tor is a strange hill that stands up from the surrounding lowlying water meadows. This was all marshland for centuries, which is why it is not absurd to imagine Joseph of Arimathea and his companions arriving by boat. When you visit Glastonbury, you simply must walk up the tor and pray at St. Michael's Tower on top. Invoke the intercession of St. Richard Whiting and his hero-companions as you go. Your voice might have to battle against the wind, but there are few finer places in which to sense the presence of God and see the beauty of his creation as the meadows stretch out beneath you.
Go at sunset, as we love to do, walking up as the sun slips down in a glory of gold into the English landscape. Know that this is a land that has known the faith for nearly all 2,000 years of Christian history.
There is more. At the foot of the tor is the Chalice Well where, it is said, Joseph of Arimathea buried the Holy Grail, the very cup that Our Lord used at the Last Supper. The water here — tumbling and sparkling out of the hillside by the gallon — has never run dry in recorded history and is said to have healing properties. The very name of the soil, chalybeate, and its reddish color speak of the sacred chalice and its precious contents.
End your visit at the shrine again. This little church dates only from the 1940s but was built lovingly by Catholics yearning to see the faith restored in this ancient place. This is now a thriving parish as well as a place where pilgrims come.
Joanna Bogle writes from London.
----- EXCERPT: Glastonbury, England, is full of spiritual surprises ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joanna Bogle ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:SUNDAY, JUNE 27
Help Them Learn, Help Them Grow
CBS, 8 a.m.
Subtitled “A Faith Response to Children Left Behind,” this half-hour interfaith special includes a Christian Brothers middle school in inner-city Chicago among the educational projects it profiles. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was among the producers.
SUNDAY, JUNE 27
Sisters of Life: Solemn Mass of Establishment
EWTN, noon
It's not every day we get to witness a religious community's Mass of establishment. But here, from St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan on the feast of the Annunciation this year, is such a Mass, for the Sisters of Life. Founded by Cardinal John O'Connor, these selfless sisters provide maternity services, speakers, research, retreats, abortion-aftermath counseling and other pro-life outreach. Their website is www.sister soflife.org.
MONDAY, JUNE 28
History Detectives
History Channel, 9 p.m.
Tonight's investigations probe a cane that possibly is from the Lewis and Clark expedition, 10 watercolor postcards apparently from World War II internment camps and a board game that is much like Monopoly but seems to predate it.
TUE.-FRI., JUNE 29-JULY 2
Classroom
A & E, 7 a.m.
You might want to tape these early-morning daily two-hour biographies of great Americans from our Revolutionary War. Tuesday's subject is Thomas Jefferson, followed in order by George Washington, John and Abigail Adams, and Patrick Henry.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30
On Stage at the White House
PBS, 8 p.m.
Here is a behind-the-scenes look at preparations for a formal dinner at the White House — in this case, a governors’ dinner hosted by George W. and Laura Bush. Singer Natalie Cole provides entertainment in the East Room.
THURSDAY, JULY 1
Life on the Rock
EWTN, 8 p.m.
The topic for tonight's guest, Robert Muise of the St. Thomas More Law Center, is timely, to say the least: “We Need God in America Now.”
SATURDAY, JULY 3
Battle History of the U.S. Army
History Channel, 9 a.m.
The eve of Independence Day is a perfect time for us to reflect on the price our military personnel have paid for the liberty we enjoy today. These four hour-long segments illustrate the truth of George Orwell's comment, “We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.”
SATURDAY, JULY 3
Wimbledon
NBC, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., live
Head to London for the women's final in the prestigious tennis tournament.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daniel J. Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Now Playing DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Take Five
THE NOTEBOOK (New Line) Director: Nick Cassavetes. Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner, Gena Rowlands. (PG-13)
Take One: Following A Walk to Remember is another adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks tear-jerker, this one about an elderly woman with Alzheimer's who doesn't remember the story of her life or the elderly man who visits her and reads her a story of young love.
Take Two: The story of young love involves some steamy pre-marital sensuality and finally sex, though explicit nudity is avoided to ward off an R rating. Recurring minor profanity.
Final Take: Whatever value the framing story has as a testament to lifelong marital commitment in sickness and in health is more than outweighed by objectionable bedroom scenes. (See “Spotlight” for more.)
THE TERMINAL (DreamWorks) Director: Steven Spielberg. Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Stanley Tucci. (PG-13)
Take One: Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks reprise the light comedy and tragic undercurrents of Catch Me If You Can in a tale of an Eastern European traveler stranded indefinitely in JFK Airport by a bureaucratic catch-22, where he develops relationships with airport staff and a beautiful flight attendant.
Take Two: The story wobbles between plotlines and characters that make sense and ones that don't. An off-screen adulterous affair is depicted appropriately as a tragic and self-destructive pattern of behavior. Some crude references and humor.
Final Take: Despite some mis-steps, a terrific performance from Hanks, a stupendous terminal set and some genuine emotion make The Terminal worthwhile adult fare.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (Walt Disney) Director: Frank Coraci. Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan, Cecile De France. (PG)
Take One: Forget the Jules Verne story and the David Niven film. This is a Jackie Chan buddy film. Phileas Fogg (Steve Coogan) is only the sidekick, valet “Passepartout” (Chan) is the real star and the globe-trotting race a mere excuse for the closest thing to vintage Jackie Chan action in years.
Take Two: You can have a paper-thin story in this sort of movie, but it should go down easier than this one, which is aggressively stupid to the point of embarrassment. The minor profanity and crass humor are more or less in PG territory, but some of the slapstick violence is surprisingly rough.
Final Take: Too lame for general consumption; only Jackie fans dedicated enough to see the film only for the action need bother.
THE STEPFORD WIVES (Paramount) Director: Frank Oz. Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick. (PG-13)
Take One: Hollywood takes another stab at Ira Levin's allegorical social satire, this one going for black comedy rather than thriller suspense. Nicole Kidman plays a ruthless career woman contemplating homemakerhood after being fired and moving with her husband to a strange town of dorky, idle men and subservient female sex toys.
Take Two: Like Kidman's character, this Stepford Wives briefly contemplates the perils of pursuing career at the expense of life and family — before emphatically deciding being a housewife is an unthinkably horrific alternative. Crude sexual humor and content; depiction of a homosexual couple.
Final Take: Hopelessly muddled narratively and culturally, Wives also has no idea what it wants to say beyond its knee-jerk male bashing and contempt for homemakerhood.
SAVED! (United Artists) Director: Brian Dannelly. Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin. (PG-13)
Take One: Evangelical-Protestant subculture takes it on the chin in a satiric comedy about a fundamentalist girl who believes Jesus wants her to “straighten out” her sexually confused boyfriend, gets pregnant and discovers the harsh side of her sanctimonious subculture.
Take Two: Saved! depicts everyone with dogmatic faith as naïve, bigoted, dishonest and/or hypocritical; only profane, skeptical or uncommitted characters have compassion, decency or intellectual honesty. Recurring obscene and crude language and positive presentation of homosexuality.
Final Take: Simply one of the most mean-spirited and offensive movies I have ever seen. (See “Spotlight” for more.)
Steven D. Greydanus is editor and chief critic of Decentfilms.com.
Spotlight: Another
Two years ago A Walk to Remember, starring Mandy Moore and based on the tear-jerker by Catholic novelist Nicholas Sparks, made a splash with Christian audiences. Now Hollywood wants to sell churchgoers on two new movies — The Notebook, based on another Sparks novel, and Saved!, starring Moore in another fundamentalist role.
Don't be fooled. The Notebook, with its steamy scenes of premarital sex, is in some ways the opposite of the pro-chastity Walk to Remember. And Saved! casts Moore as another pious Christian only to satirize her character, who's as self-righteous, vicious and hypocritical a harpy as Hollywood has ever created.
The Notebook tells a story of a young couple who almost from the get-go can hardly keep their hands off each other. Their first, abortive attempt to make love is followed by a long separation — but years later, despite being engaged to another man, Allie returns to Noah and a torrid tryst ensues. Worse, there's no noticeable cautionary or critical dimension here; the story's sympathies are solidly with the lovers.
It's too bad, because there are actually some nice things about the film, including a rather touching picture of an elderly husband whose lifelong devotion to his wife is unchanged by her declining mental state.
Saved! is far worse. On one level, the film goes for the Magdalene Sisters defense: It can't be offensive because it's all true(ish). Yes, insular complacency, religious sloganeering, judgmentalism, hypocrisy and lovelessness are alive and well in fundamentalism — and Catholicism too, for that matter. But, also like Magdalene Sisters, Saved! is arrogantly dismissive of anything like compassion, decency or honorable religious commitment among its target demographic.
If that's what Hollywood thinks we're like, efforts to target Christian audiences are likely to continue to be offensively off the mark.
— Steven D. Greydanus
----- EXCERPT: A Register's-eye view of five current box-office leaders ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Joseph: King of Dreams (2000)
Though not in the same league artistically as its astonishing big-screen predecessor The Prince of Egypt, this direct-to-video animated prequel brings a similar sensibility to retelling the story of Joseph and his brothers in a way that is both reverent and creative.
Dreams, of course, are integral to the story of Joseph. For King of Dreams the DreamWorks team crafted new dream sequences with their own visual flair. Joseph's dreams look like living, flowing Van Goghs; the dream-sky swirls like “Starry Night” and the grass ripples under the dream-Joseph's feet like ripples in a pond.
Joseph's sibling rivalry with his brothers is depicted in terms any child will readily understand. The sequence in which they throw him into a pit and sell him into slavery is handled with the same sensitivity as Moses’ killing of the Egyptian man.
In one small way, Joseph: King of Dreams even outshines the earlier film: The spirituality of its signature song, “You Know Better Than I,” is much more profound than anything in the more mainstream “There Can Be Miracles.”
Content advisory: Fraternal hostility; slavery and imprisonment.
Babette's Feast (1987)
Babette's Feast is a feast in itself, but it's also a restrained, ascetical film that aims at elevation, not mere gratification. A parable of religion and life, the deceptively simple story centers on a pair of aging daughters of a deceased Protestant minister who serve the austere community their father built.
Into their lives comes a French refugee named Babette, who begs to be allowed to serve them. The pious sisters hardly suspect they are as needy as Babette or that she might supply what they lack. She is French and, presumably, Catholic. What can she have that they might need?
Babette is an ambassador of incarnationalism, of grace. Her feast is both a meal and also (in a way the sisters cannot guess) a sacrifice. Babette's Feast is a quiet celebration of the grace that meets us at every turn, redeeming even our sacrifices and losses. One of the 15 films on the Vatican film list in the Religion category.
Content advisory: Nothing problematic. Subtitles.
Monsieur Vincent (1947)
St. Vincent de Paul led a remarkable life. Born into poverty, sold into slavery in Africa after being kidnapped at sea by Turkish pirates, he eventually rose to become a trusted adviser to queens, princes and nobility. Even more remarkable was the way this unassuming priest brought about a major change in social consciousness in France that made its effects felt throughout Europe and eventually the world. Five centuries earlier St. Francis had sparked a spiritual revolution by teaching his followers to live as beggars. Vincent sparked another by teaching his followers to feed and shelter beggars.
Of course Christians had always practiced charity on an individual basis. Vincent's innovation was to organize charity, to found institutions and orders to care for the needy. Every soup kitchen and shelter today continues his work. Monsieur Vincent, director Maurice Cloche's beautifully crafted, award-winning biopic, celebrates the saint's devotion to the poor without romanticizing the objects of his devotion.
One of the 15 films on the Vatican film list in the Religion category.
Content advisory: Brief scenes of violence, including a fleeting war montage with a glimpse of rape (no nudity).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: The Great Pro-Life Communicator DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Ronald Reagan has been called the Great Communicator.
On several occasions, he applied his common-sense speaking style to the problem of abortion.
Speaking to religious journalists, Sept. 14, 1982:
“If you cannot determine when life begins, then doesn't simple morality dictate that you opt for the fact that it is alive until and unless someone can prove it dead? If we came upon a body in the street that was unconscious and we weren't sure whether it was unconscious or dead, we wouldn't say, ‘Let's bury it.’ We'd wait until someone assured us that it wasn't alive. And I think the same thing goes of the unborn child. I happen to believe the unborn child is a living human being.”
Proclamation of National Sanctity of Human Life Day, Jan. 22, 1984:
“Slavery, which treated blacks as something less than human, to be bought and sold if convenient, cheapened human life and mocked our dedication to the freedom and equality of all men and women. Can we say that abortion — which treats the unborn as something less than human, to be destroyed if convenient — will be less corrosive to the values we hold dear?”
“Evil Empire” speech to the National Association of Evangelicals, March 8, 1983:
“While America's military strength is important, let me add here that I've always maintained that the struggle now going on for the world will never be decided by bombs or rockets, by armies or military might. The real crisis we face today is a spiritual one; at root, it is a test of moral will and faith. … More than a decade ago, a Supreme Court decision literally wiped off the books of 50 states statutes protecting the rights of unborn children. Abortion on demand now takes the lives of up to 1.5 million unborn children a year. Human-life legislation ending this tragedy will someday pass the Congress, and you and I must never rest until it does.”
To women Christian leaders, Oct. 13, 1983:
“Either the law protects human beings or it doesn't. When we're dealing with a handicapped child — say, a mentally retarded baby girl who needs medical care to survive — is she not entitled to the protection of the law? Will she be denied her chance for love and life because someone decides she's too weak to warrant our help or because someone has taken it upon himself to decide the quality of her life doesn't justify keeping her alive? Is that not God's decision to make? And isn't it our duty to serve even the least of these, for, in so doing, we serve him?
“Our administration has tried to make sure the handicapped receive the respect of the law for the dignity of their lives. And the same holds true, I believe deeply, for the unborn. It may not help me in some polls to say this publicly, but until and unless it can be proven that the unborn child is not a living human being — and I don't think it can be proven — then we must protect the right of the unborn to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Proclamation of National Sanctity of Human Life Day, January 1987:
“In 1973, America's unborn children lost their legal protection. In the 14 years since then, some 20 million unborn babies, 1.5 million each year, have lost their lives by abortion — in a nation of 242 million people. … Abortion kills unborn babies and denies them forever their rights to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ Our Declaration of Independence holds that governments are instituted among men to secure these rights, and our Constitution — founded on these principles — should not be read to sanction the taking of innocent human life. … Our heritage as Americans bids us to respect and to defend the sanctity of human life.”
Proclamation of National Sanctity of Human Life Day, January 1988:
“We are told that we may not interfere with abortion. We are told that we may not ‘impose our morality’ on those who wish to allow or participate in the taking of the life of infants before birth; yet no one calls it ‘imposing morality’ to prohibit the taking of life after people are born.
“We are told as well that there exists a ‘right’ to end the lives of unborn children; yet no one can explain how such a right can exist in stark contradiction of each person's fundamental right to life. That right to life belongs equally to babies in the womb, babies born handicapped and the elderly or infirm. That we have killed the unborn for 15 years does not nullify this right, nor could any number of killings ever do so.”
Compiled by Joseph A. D'Agostino in Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph A. ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:What's in a Name?
The school's board of trustees approved the change unanimously June 7. The change takes effect immediately.
Officials said they wanted the world to view the school differently, hoping to recruit students internationally, the Gazette newspaper reported. It also wanted a name that would unite the campus as one.
The designation will also help the school stay competitive, officials noted, citing a report that said more students said they prefer to attend a university rather than a college.
New Prez for St. Francis
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 10 — St. Francis University in Loretto, Pa., has named an alumnus and former professor at the school as its new president.
Father Gabriel Zeis, currently a chaplain at the College of New Jersey and a 1975 St. Francis grad, will replace Father Christian Oravec, who left to lead the Sacred Heart Province of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis. He had been president of St. Francis since 1977, the Associated Press reported.
Father Zeis graduated with a history degree from St. Francis and twice taught there, once teaching Hebrew and Greek and later teaching in the religious-studies department.
Another New Leader
Evelyn Lynch, currently provost and vice president of East Stroudsburg University in East Stroudsburg, Pa., will become head of the Sisters of Mercy-run women's college Aug. 2.
Lynch has a background in early childhood and special education, serving as professor and coordinator of early childhood special education at Moorhead State University in Minnesota from 1978 to 1994, the Hart-ford Courant reported.
Lynch succeeds Winifred Coleman, who is retiring after 12 years.
Serving Deaf People
The school, which recently finished celebrating its 150th year in existence, is one of nine state-supported schools for deaf in New York, the Buffalo News reported. Four nuns currently work there.
St. Mary's partners with nearby Jesuit-run Canisius College, which offers a graduate degree in deaf education, training teachers to teach deaf students.
Father Thomas Coughlin, the first deaf-born priest in the country, attended high school at St. Mary's and is now pastor of a church in California with mostly a deaf congregation.
Catholics Lead the Way
A Wisconsin legislator plans to introduce legislation that would allow the state's public school districts to create single-sex schools, the Capital Times reported.
One proponent cited a University of Michigan study that found graduates of Catholic single-sex high schools scored better on tests than graduates of Catholic coeducational schools.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: From Santa Paula to the Ends of the Earth DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Pages from thousands of books — from The Spirit of Catholicism to On the Banks of Plum Creek — litter the Lovettsville, Va., site where Margaret and David Mason's three-story home once stood.
The Masons and their 10 children lost all of their material possessions in an early-morning fire April 7. Among the missing was their phone book. Lacking her college friends’ telephone numbers, Margaret Mason told her neighbor, “Get ahold of Ba Carrescia so she can notify Thomas Aquinas College for prayers.”
Carrescia, a 1978 graduate and classmate of Margaret Mason, received the call at 7 a.m. and immediately let the college know.
Even after 26 years, the bonds that were first forged at the Santa Paula, Calif., school continue to bear fruit. It's a community that transcends class year, roommates or mere friendship. According to alumni, it happens all the time.
“From time to time tragedy arises among our alumni, and the very first act they often undertake is to call the school,” says Dave Shaneyfelt, the college's director of development. “Within 24 hours the first call is made here so the campus can pray. We have Masses said and a prayer request is posted on a bulletin board in the college's commons.”
“I'm familiar with two instances where alumni families have gone through a particular health crisis,” Shaneyfelt adds. “Alumni brought meals, collected money, did grocery shopping and watched their children.”
When one of 1978 graduate Pip Donahoe's former roommates unexpectedly lost her son two years ago, Donahoe spearheaded an effort among the class’ 15 women to send the mother, who liked tea, a teacup each month.
“Most Thomas Aquinas College graduates have big families and they don't have a lot of money for china,” Donahoe explains. “Another classmate said that even though the teacup was a material thing, it did help.”
Far-Flung Community
In the case of the Masons, an entire network has sprouted to provide the family with the materials things they lost in the fire, such as their large collection of books, home-schooling materials and classical music. Carrescia of Ashburn, Va., has been organizing dinners through two nearby local Catholic parishes. Nearby friends, neighbors and members of their parish, St. Andrew the Apostle in Clifton, Va., have also provided meals, furniture and financial contributions.
The family was able to purchase a temporary home through financial donations. They plan to live there while their home is being rebuilt.
Meanwhile Thomas Aquinas College graduate John Mortensen and his wife, Beth, have headed up an effort to replace the Masons’ 10,000-volume library. Even more extraordinary is that neither of the Mortensens knows the Masons personally, and they are organizing the effort from where they live — in Austria. They heard about the fire through a mutual friend in Boise, Idaho. The idea to rebuild the Masons’ book collection came from Beth Mortensen.
“What inspired the effort was that I have often thought that if we lost all our belongings, the books would be the hardest loss to recover,” she says. “Any lover of books would understand what a loss of a library is, especially one full of out-of-print and rare books. These books are hard to find, but they are also the books that are on bookshelves and in attics of Catholic families around the country.”
The Mortensens have created an online database (www.masonfamilybooks.net) that will keep track of the Masons’ book lists and which books have been donated to the family.
“Our library was the loss that we felt the most,” David Mason said. “A lot of the books we had were out of print.”
Thankfully, the Masons were able to reconstruct their book list, based, in part, on their eldest daughter's recent college application to Thomas Aquinas College. As part of her application, Sophia Mason had compiled a list of the books she had read through high school and was able to get a copy of her application. A national merit scholar, she's been accepted but plans to postpone attending for a year in order to help her family recover from the fire.
“We used that list to form the core of the books that we had lost,” David Mason says. Despite the loss, he feels blessed his entire family made it out of the home safely.
“All we lost were just things,” he adds. “My wife's mother died two days after the fire and she commented that she didn't take anything with her. Certainly there are those things that can be replaced. Some that cannot are aids in acquiring the virtue of detachment.”
Bonds Formed
Carrescia says Thomas Aquinas’ size and approach to education foster a genuine concern for fellow graduates.
“It's a very small community, and in seminars there are 10 to 15 people having conversations all day long. You're growing in faith and knowledge all together, all the time, so you become bonded in that,” Carrescia says. “It's that kind of place.”
Students at Thomas Aquinas spend four years studying the same curriculum and wrestling with ideas from the same texts — the great books.
“The personal choices of daily prayer, receiving the sacraments often and striving to pursue a virtuous life are freely chosen and the norm among students,” says Karen Walker, a graduate and now director of public relations. “When there is a purposely planned full capacity of about 350 students, how alumni act toward one another is merely an extension of what is practiced spontaneously and freely at the college.”
Shaneyfelt, himself a graduate and classmate of Margaret Mason, agrees.
“Before I worked for the college, I could travel the country with an alumni directory and always have a place to stay and a meal to eat,” says Shaneyfelt, who has worked at the college since 1997.
Although himself not a graduate, David Mason says Thomas Aquinas is remarkable for its small size as well as the shared identity of the students.
“The common bonds forged there are spiritual and therefore enduring,” he says. “They are centered around lifelong, and even eternal, things — so they don't tend to fade.”
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: Thomas Aquinas College alumni get closer with the years ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Pure Love Prepares DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:A PLEA FOR PURITY: SEX, GOD AND MARRIAGE
by Johann Christoph Arnold Plough Publishing, 2002 182 pages, $10 Available from online booksellers or call (845) 658-8351
First published in 1996, Johann Christoph Arnold's A Plea for Purity now includes a recently released joint statement from the Archdiocese of New York and Arnold's Bruderhof community, an Anabaptist offshoot. Both the statement and the book are a vibrant and hope-filled call for Christians to form “a genuine sexual counterculture” in the midst of our decadent society.
The book also comes with a warm recommendation from Mother Teresa. This is appropriate, because it is brimming with the spirit of the recently beatified nun, combining simplicity with profound wisdom. That is to say, it reflects the spirit of the Gospel.
The result is that reading this book is not simply a matter of gaining new information and insights. It is more like going on a little retreat. Arnold's approach to marriage and sexuality is reverent and contemplative.
On the topic of sex within marriage, he writes: “When a man and woman unite, they should have the attitude Moses had when he came upon the burning bush: ‘Here is holy ground; take off your shoes!’ (Exodus 3:5). Their attitude must always be one of reverence for their Creator and for the mystery of marriage. … When a couple experiences the sexual sphere in this way, they will feel that their union cannot be meant only for procreation. At the same time they must remember that through their uniting a new life may come into being. If they are truly reverent, they will feel such an awe for the holiness of this fact that their union will become like a prayer to God.”
Though Arnold is not Catholic, his thinking bears a distinctly Catholic sensibility. His views on contraception, divorce, remarriage and abortion are far closer to Catholic doctrine than that of almost any Protestant denomination. His chapter on the single life offers an excellent apologia for priestly celibacy and consecrated chastity. And, although Arnold never quotes Pope John Paul II explicitly, the Holy Father's groundbreaking talks on the theology of the body seem to have influenced his thinking.
Arnold is not afraid to speak courageously, even when he knows some will scoff.
He approaches hard topics such as masturbation, contraception, homosexuality, abortion and divorce with a refreshing mix of both gentleness and orthodox Christian teaching. And he understands that insisting on reverence for sex and marriage will never be easy.
“Wherever God's will is consistently lived out,” he writes, “it will be misunderstood and seen as provocation (1 Peter 4:4). Two thousand years have not made our present world any more tolerant of Jesus’ message than the world of his time. Those who are unwilling to accept his way will always be resentful and even vindictive toward those who witness to it, and the clash is inevitable (John 15:18-20).”
Not all readers will agree with everything the Bruderhofs, including Johann Arnold, have to say. On the topic of raising kids, Arnold suggests he is opposed to corporal punishment of any kind. He downplays the role of religious education for children, suggesting that the loving witness of the adults around them is enough. Still, A Plea for Purity: Sex, God and Marriage offers worthwhile reading. Couples at any stage of their married life will benefit, as well as people preparing for marriage or who plan to marry someday.
Barry Michaels writes from
Blairsville, Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barry Michaels ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: A Hard Look at Soft Skills DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Family Matters
Is it just me, or does it seem that people who have the worst communications and people skills are often the most likely to be promoted? They are aggressive, arrogant and work hard, so they keep advancing — all the while making everyone below them miserable.
In many company cultures there is a sense that the so-called “soft skills” — or “interpersonal abilities” — won't get you anywhere. In fact, if the culture is competitive, being seen as “too nice” can even be a liability. After all, don't nice guys finish last?
The good news is, this seems to be changing. Recent studies show that soft skills, in the final analysis, can bring solid benefits. Major studies of more than 27,000 employees in Canada, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and the Work & Family Connection have all indicated that the development of “soft skills” in managers is the most important thing a company can do to retain workers and keep them committed.
Organizations are beginning to realize, for example, that the No. 1 factor in ensuring employee motivation and retention is having managers who are liked and respected by their staffers. In a Canadian study of the challenges employees face in balancing home and work, the interpersonal skills of the boss proved even more important than daycare in providing a sense of balance. Also, a recent book on management and leadership, Break All The Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently, argues that an employee's relationship with his or her immediate supervisor has a more powerful impact on employee morale than does any factor regarding the organization as a whole.
Given all this management science, how should an authentic Christian behave in the workplace? Christian clinical psychologist and researcher Edward Worthington Jr. has shown that we show others love when we are willing to “value” them. At the foundation of every relationship, he writes, are opportunities to show that the other person's contribution is vital. Makes sense. When I value you, I treat you with respect independently of your performance. I might or might not be pleased with your performance, but I respect you as a person.
An employee who feels valued is more inspired to show appreciation, to value others, to commit and to overcome self-interest and better serve the organization. An employee who does not feel valued is more likely to become sad, angry, envious, discouraged or resentful.
One pitfall to avoid is viewing the soft skills as just another technique in a manager's productivity-boosting repertoire. Employees will naturally suspect the manager is being nice or showing more interest not because of genuine concern for his people but as a means to manipulate them. But authentic valuation of employees is a result of respecting each person's dignity as a human being created in God's image. It's what we're called to do not only in the workplace but everywhere we go.
As Christians in the workplace, we should take a big-picture view of the soft skills. We don't improve our interpersonal abilities merely to be more productive or successful. We practice them every day because our love for Christ generates a desire to love and serve others in every area of our lives. That this particular skill set is so effective in producing positive business outcomes is an outstanding fringe benefit, though. Wouldn't you agree, managers?
Art Bennett is director of Alpha Omega
Clinic and Consultation Services in Vienna, Virginia, and Bethesda, Maryland.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Art Bennett ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Fruit of the Laborer DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Priest Profile
With the same hands that pounded nails into shingles under a blazing sun — hands once pocked with blisters and calluses, the marks of the roofing trade — Father David Nicgorski now presents the Body of Christ at the altar with the greatest gentleness.
Recently, Father Nicgorski, a priest in the congregation known as the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, paused in the midst of leading directed retreats for eight Carmelite Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Los Angeles and spoke with the Register about his pilgrim journey of faith.
Father Nicgorski hails from the Philadelphia area, the oldest in a family of six boys and a girl. Just as he himself once did, his father and several of his brothers have labored as roofers.
“I worked on roofs in Philadelphia, New Jersey, the Carolinas and even on a building at Duke University,” he says.
He comes from a devout Catholic family led by a faith-filled “man's man” — namely, his dad, Wallace.
“When I was 25, my father and I made a retreat together,” Father Nicgorski explains. “It was a retreat for Catholic laymen. I came away from the experience with a sense of freedom, having realized that the possibilities were open for me to serve the Lord as a single man, as a married man or in religious life as a priest or brother. Three different paths, but each offering an opportunity to achieve sanctity.”
At about the same time, he found a spiritual director, Dominican Father Michael Novacki, with whom he met at least once every month. (Father Novacki has since died.)
“If you truly want to grow in the spiritual life, spiritual direction is a huge help, a must,” Father Nicgorski says.
The combination of multiple retreats and ongoing spiritual direction keened his ear toward a possible call to the priesthood. It was while discerning God's will along that path that he eventually found himself being led to the Oblates, Our Lady of Grace Seminary and St. Clement Eucharistic Shrine in the Fenway section of Boston. He was ordained a priest at the shrine on May 25, 1991.
Eucharistic adoration, so much a part of daily life at St. Clement Shrine, has been instrumental in Father Nicgorski's spiritual development.
“After a hard day of roofing, all smelly and stinky, I would stop into a parish that offered perpetual Eucharistic adoration and spend time in prayer,” he recalls.
Since ordination, Father Nicgorski has observed changes in his relationship with the Lord. He uses the analogy of a wedding to illustrate his point.
“It is deeper, fuller,” he explains. “Today, the Lord is the bridegroom and I am the best man. When I listen to the Lord, he whispers to me, ‘Isn't she beautiful?’ That is his way of speaking to me about his bride, the Church.”
Mary Morrell, a Catholic journalist and educator from Metuchen, N.J., has known Father Nicgorski since the mid-1990s.
“He is so genuine, he has such deep faith and he has such a marvelous understanding of the human condition,” she says. “He is a true friend and he has been a bright spot in the lives of so many people.”
Like Mary, Sister of Christian Charity Helene Foley of South Orange, N.J., has known Father Nicgorski for years. She, too, is grateful he has been in her life.
“He is a wonderful priest of God,” she says, “so generous, so affable, so encouraging, so happy and always willing to help.”
‘Frightening and Awesome’
The Oblates of the Virgin Mary was founded in 1826 in Cuneo, Italy, part of the Piedmont region. The founder is Father Bruno Lanteri, whose cause for sainthood is open. The postulator is Oblate Father Pierre Paul.
On Sept. 12, 2002, the order celebrated the 25th anniversary of its arrival in the United States to begin a new foundation. Today, including priests, brothers and clerics, the Oblates number 50 in this country. Their charism, or spiritual thrust, is spiritual direction plus leading parish missions and retreats.
The Oblates also assist bishops with parish work wherever they are needed. Today, they minister in New Jersey, Colorado, California, Illinois, the Philippines and Boston, where they have a shrine, a chapel, a seminary and a house of studies and residence. Since 1982, the Oblates have staffed St. Francis Chapel in the Prudential Center Complex in Boston. At both St. Clement Eucharistic Shrine and St. Francis Chapel, where the faithful of all ages find a spiritual oasis, the numbers who regularly go to confession have risen dramatically through the years.
In their daily lives, the Oblates of the Virgin Mary hold Jesus and the Blessed Mother as their inspirations and spiritual companions. With inspired — and inspiring — young priests such as Father Nicgorski, is it any wonder the order is growing strong?
Asked to describe his greatest priestly joy, Father Nicgorski responds, “Participating in the priesthood of Christ. It is frightening and awesome to think that we priests do the work of Christ.”
Wally Carew, author of A Farewell to Glory, writes from Medford, Massachusetts.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wally Carew ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Summertime, and the Reading Is Easy DATE: 06/27/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 27-July 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Just because summer's here doesn's mean kids’ books have to go into storage until the fall.
After all, there's no time like no-school time to remind children that reading isn't just for learning — it can be downright fun, too.
Don't let the lazy, hazy (and, we hope, not too crazy) days of the season go by without sitting down to read a few books aloud with the young people in your life. Kids just seem to love this time-tested ritual.
Best of all, there's an abundance of uplifting, spiritually nourishing titles for Catholics to choose from. Here are some of our favorites for those rainy days ahead — not to mention the long evenings before bedtime and those extended, “Are-we-there-yet?” summer drives.
CAN YOU FIND SAINTS? INTRODUCING YOUR CHILD
TO HOLY MEN AND WOMEN by Philip D. Gallery illustrated by Janet Harlow St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2003 41 pages, $16.95
To order: (800) 488-0488 or catalog.americancatholic.org
Hats off — or should we say “halos off?” — to the duo who created this fourth book in the “Search & Learn” series. Fashioned after the gazillion-selling Where's Waldo? secular series, this one challenges readers to pick out the saints hiding in 13 double-page “picture journeys.” Each themed exploration is packed with illustrations and information about the Church's holy role models. We tried to stop after one search — “Saints Listed in the Liturgy of the Mass” — but it was so much fun, we just kept going. Named the top children's book for 2004 by the Catholic Press Association, Can You Find Saints? includes a parents guide highlighting the virtues of the featured saints. Ages 5 and older.
GOD MADE YOU SPECIAL
by Eric Metaxas Zonderkidz, 2002 20 pages, $6.99
To order: www.zonderkidz.com
It's hard to resist upbeat, affirming words — especially when they're delivered by a team of friendly, funny, chatty vegetables. In this recent VeggieTales installment, Larry the Cucumber and Bob the Tomato remind readers that, no matter what our shape, size, color or personality, God has lovingly and carefully made each of us so that no two of us are exactly the same. The board-book pages, colorful illustrations and sheer silliness of the language will appeal to preschoolers. Meanwhile, the positive, God-centered messages will resonate with parents and help reinforce their spiritual guidance. Ages 2 to 6.
ST. JUDE: A FRIEND in Hard Times
by Michael Aquilina III illustrated by Keith Neely foreword by Scott Hahn Pauline, 2004 78 pages, $14.95
To order: (800) 876-4463 or www.pauline.org/store
What would you rather do during vacation: read a few good books — or write one? Twelve-year-old Michael Aquilina did exactly the latter. Desperate to solve a computer problem when he was younger, the author turned to St. Jude for help. The saint intervened and the author was hooked. He wanted to know more about this “patron saint of lost causes” who leads so many people to Jesus. The result is this well-researched biography that draws from the Bible, history, tradition and legend. Great illustrations. Ages 10 to 14.
PASCUAL AND THE KITCHEN ANGELS
by Tomie de Paola Putnam, 2004 32 pages, $16.99
To order: www.penguinputnam.com or (800) 788-6262
Pascual is so kind and generous, it seems only natural that he should become a friar. But trouble's brewing when he reports to the monastery. Poor Pascual is assigned to cook for the friars — and he doesn't even know how to boil water. Soon, with a little love and the power of prayer, Pascual is serving the tastiest of feasts. Readers will love learning the angelic secret of the monastery kitchen. Popular author-artist Tomie de Paola has dished up a fun and inspiring version of the legend of Pascual, patron of cooks. Ages 4 to 8.
ANIMALS OF THE BIBLE
by Mary Hoffman illustrated by Jackie Morris Phyllis Fogelman Books, 2003 32 pages, $16.99
To order: www.penguinputnam.com or (800) 788-6262
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Children love animal stories, and the Bible is full of them. This collection includes a retelling of nine Old Testament favorites that feature beasts of every variety. The author's writing style is casual and conversational, just right for reading aloud. The well-told stories and detailed watercolor illustrations help readers imagine what it must have been like to jump on board Noah's Ark, see plagues of locusts and frogs descend on Egypt and stare down hungry lions with Daniel. Biblical references are provided for readers who want to know more. Ages 4 to 8.
THE FUN-FINDER BOOK: IT'S A GOD THING!
by Nancy Rue illustrated by Lyn Boyer Zonderkidz, 2003 105 pages, $7.99
To order: www.zonderkidz.com
This book helps girls identify hobbies reflecting the talents and gifts God has given them. Self-quizzes (“Check Yourself Out”), journaling and action plans (“Just Do It”) provide the road map. This is light summer reading with a payoff, as research indicates that kids who enter their teen years with a hobby or special interest navigate those years more easily than those who have not found something to call their own. To share this book is to help a girl find a hobby — and find herself. Ages 8 to 12.
BLESSED PIER GIORGIO FRASSATI: JOURNEY TO THE SUMMIT
by Ana Maria Vazquez and Jennings Dean illustrated by Don Stewart Pauline, 2004 139 pages, $5.95
To order: (800) 836-9723 or www.pauline.org/store
Looking for a hero? Pier Giorgio Frassati grew up in Italy during the early 20th century. Born into an affluent family, he excelled at soccer, mountain climbing and downhill skiing. This popular athlete, also known for his humor, led a hidden life. Grateful for Jesus in the holy Eucharist, Pier Giorgio quietly sought him in the poor. When he died at 24 after contracting polio, Turin's disenfranchised filled the church to say goodbye to their friend — whom Pope John Paul II would later call the “Man of the Beatitudes.” Ages 10 to 14.
Patricia A. Crawford writes from Winter Park, Florida.
Kerry A. Crawford writes from Pittsburgh.
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When he turned plain water into fine wine at the Cana wedding, Jesus might have had more in mind than just spicing up a reception. Researchers believe they have found the key to a long, lean and healthy life in a single protein — and it's activated by a compound found in red wine, resveratrol. This was linked by earlier research with extended lifespan.
Source: news-medical.net, May 24 Register illustration by Tim Rauch.
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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 10 — Driven by lawmakers hoping to bypass their pro-abortion governor, both chambers of the Michigan Legislature have passed a law banning partial-birth abortions.
The legislature approved the bill last year, but Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a nominal Catholic, vetoed it, the Associated Press reported. Pro-lifers collected more than 440,000 petition signatures to bring the bill back to the Legislature, where it could take effect with majority approval by both chambers.
While both chambers passed the law June 9, it didn't have the two-thirds majority vote need to take effect immediately. It will become law next March.
Canadian Courageous
Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary, Alberta, demanded in a letter published June 11 at city parishes that Prime Minister Paul Martin take a stand against abortion and same-sex unions. He accuses Martin of “moral incoherence” for failure to take such stands, the Calgary Sun reported.
“The truth regarding the human person and our obligations to uphold this truth,” Bishop Henry wrote, “do not change when we leave the security of our homes and venture into the secular or political sphere.”
Texas Town Holds the Line
LIFENEWS.COM, June 8 — The City Council of Killeen, Texas, has drafted a resolution recognizing life as beginning at conception. It is also seeking to place restrictions on an abortion site that has opened in the city.
Killeen residents discovered the abortion site was opening in their city when they noticed half-page ads for it in their local phone book, the pro-life news site LifeNews.com reported. At a council meeting in early June, 347 residents spoke against the site opening and only three spoke in favor.
While federal law legalizes abortion, the city attorney noted, local governments can impose restrictions. Another resolution drafted by the council would look into requiring a special permit and $5 million liability insurance for the abortion site.
Pro-Life Music Festival
The pro-life group is just one of several sponsors, whose motto for the festival will be “Rock America Back to Life,” the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reported. At least 33 bands are scheduled to perform at the June 25-26 event in Warsaw, Ind.
Five years ago the festival drew 350 people; this year 5,000 to 7,000 are expected to attend.
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